What's the best way to highlight a required field on a web form?

Asked 2008-11-04T18:50:46.417

I don't find the oft-used "*" to be very nice looking - can anyone suggest a nicer-looking method or point me to an example?

I tried making the field highlighted in red as one person suggested but I did not like the look.

Bold labels might do the trick.

But I really like the idea of "Required" being shown in grey in the field until text is added. Does anyone have code for this?

webforms

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2 Answers

If you're going to use colour to highlight the field, bear in mind that some people are colour-blind (so maybe provide another indicator too)

answered 2008-11-04T18:54:31.743

I typically have no objections to seeing (required) in a smaller font either right below the field name or adjacent to the entry field.

I could also see using a "textbox watermark" to have the field say "required" in it until they bring focus to the field and start typing.

answered 2008-11-04T18:52:53.370