MinneWebCon: It's the Little Things

Full title: It's the Little Things Part 2: You're Still Doing It Wrong

Forms should flow like a conversation
Ask for optional info after collecting required info
group into logical chunks
If you need multiple page forms, tell them how long it will take and relay their progress
Keep the user focused on the task with a single call to action. Don't give them other stuff to do, places to go.
Your user is right, you are wrong.
Scrub data on the server side, not in front of the user. For example, don't reformat phone numbers while the user is typing or force them to enter data a specific way.
Don't auto-tab into fields
Use date picker or date.js
Check out Huffduffer for their MAD LIBS style form
There's a fourth label position: overlay where the label is inside the label and dissolves as the user begins typing. But use sparingly because people forget.
```
$('input').labelover();
```
Use a tab index to prevent user from jumping around
Color hinting on its own is bad. Add shapes for speedy recognition.
Position error messages proximate to input and where focus is
try google.com/websiteoptimizer