Here are five things you can do to make your Web apps have UIs that work better for your users.
1: JavaScript/AJAX should not override basic browser controls
Recently, I was using one of my bank’s websites, and I noticed some peculiar behavior. There was a date field, and when you clicked it, a calendar popped up; at the same time, the cursor in the date box was active. I tried to use the “Backspace” key to clear out the existing data, but instead of working as if I was in the input box, my browser behaved like I wasn’t and sent me to the previous page.
This is bad behavior, and I see it all too often. Using these JavaScript and AJAX controls can bring a lot of the desktop-like UI experience to the Web app sphere, but you should make sure that the expected browser behavior is not broken in the process.
2: Proper form behavior
If there is one thing that annoys visitors, it is being presented with a large number of input fields but the TAB button does not go from one field to another in the expected order. Along the same lines, it is also annoying when the Enter button does not submit the form at all, or it acts as if a button other than “Submit” was clicked for the current form.
Always test your forms (especially ones with many input controls) to ensure that the TAB order is correct and that the Enter button submits the form as expected.
3: Don’t use images for text
When the Web was young, people went nuts trying to get the “perfect” Web layout. The “solution” was often to make the site one big image and slice it up. After a while, reality set in, especially bandwidth, and