B10[mg]

Every now and then I read up on some usability tips and now I give one to the website building world! Of course I'm not entirely original, Adam Kalsey gave a hint already, but I like to stress the point.

Adam points out the following (well, quoting Paul Scrivens, but his website is (currently?) not available):

He suggests using a single name field instead of separating first name from last name unless you really need the names separated. The problem with this is that you never know what future uses you might have for that data. If you don't make sure its in a format you can use, its useless.

Why do I care? Well, my mother-in-law is soon visiting my country. She's Javanese, and as Wikipedia tells you Javanese (amongst others) don't use family (last) names!

Booking online flights is almost impossible, for the first and last name are always mandatory! So to get things straightened out, I have to call the airline to make sure how to bypass their too strict website (usually a dot or slash is ok, sometimes the "helpdesk" manually can change stuff).

So, if you're going to design a signup form, ask yourself the question: "is it really necessary for me to get a first and last name, or can one field (full name) do as well?".

The Javanese people (and the non-Javanese, but planning for Javanese people) will be very thankful!

usability, family name, java