[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #37870: Adding hints to login/registration form fields

[WordPress Trac]

#37870: Adding hints to login/registration form fields
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 Reporter:  davidbourguignon        |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement             |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                  |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Login and Registration  |     Version:  4.6
 Severity:  normal                  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                          |     Focuses:  ui
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Comment (by davidbourguignon):

 Hi @GaryJ thanks for the quick feedback! The webpage you are referring to
 is unfortunately unreachable.

 Believe me, after two years dealing with a diverse crowd of subscribers,
 many computer-illiterate people do not understand what a "login" or "ID"
 or "identifier" is... They know what an "email address", a "name" or
 "surname" is, though.

 Let me rephrase it this way: my proposal is not to add a placeholder (as
 the generated password on the reinit password page is), but simply a
 grayed-out hint in the field. You can write on top of it. This is quite a
 common way to give people info about how to fill a form field in.

 You will find some positive opinion about their usefulness
 [https://www.drupal.org/node/223941 in a Drupal forum]... :-)

 Alternatively, you could:
 - Put this hint in the text label of the form field, such as: "login (for
 example johnsmith) : <field>"
 - Add a tooltip that pops up when the mouse is over the field

 Yes, I do agree: "Email" should be clarified by "Email address" (in fact,
 I am using the French version of WordPress and the i18n already clarified
 this in the translation). I have created
 [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37876 another ticket] for this.

 Replying to [comment:1 GaryJ]:
 > Thanks for the ticket @davidbourguignon.
 >
 > There's some suggestion that [https://www.nngroup.com/articles/form-
 design-placeholders/ placeholders are bad for accessibility].
 >
 > Even those that are computer illiterate, I would expect them to
 understand the concept of logging in, probably even have logged in to
 other sites before. Adding in placeholder text may even confuse them more
 - "Why do I need to enter `johnsmith` when my name is Gary Jones?"
 >
 > What I do think could be clarified, and it probably worth it's own
 ticket, is changing "Email" to "Email Address".

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37870#comment:2>
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