Return to form

A List Apart recently published an article about form construction that, in bringing together the semantics, aesthetics and accessibility of html forms, created just the right conditions for some very interesting reader comments. Obviously it's not possible to hear what the silent majority have to say, but those who did comment on the article were much less certain about how to construct html forms than might be expected.

Particularly interesting was the the divide between those for whom a list (whether ordered, unordered or definition) was the natural choice for structuring a form, and those who thought that it was inappropriate. The latter were in two groups: the first were the table enthusiasts (who see a grid with questions down one column and answers down the other as a table) and the second were those (possibly only one in number) who thought that a list had a much more narrowly-defined applicability and to use a list for structuring forms and navigation was to misappropriate it.

Forms are the fundamental method by which we interact online; strange to think that so much interaction can be done without a consenus about how the things we use to do the interacting should be made.

Aphorism of the day

Same structure, different data.

No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition...

... except Alice, Bob and Charlie who are closely reading the UK Government's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act Part III public consultation document and wondering whether the days of their covert, key-protected data liaisons will soon be numbered, except in offshore waters.

JoLt

Journey of a Lifetime is a UK charity that organises a biannual month-long expedition for a group of selected young people, mostly teenagers, whose lives are profoundly affected either by social or medical problems. I made a small donation to JoLt earlier in the year and I recently received information about the people taking part in this year's expedition. It was cause for sober reflection. The JoLt site has outline bios of each of them and although some of the more personal information has been kept back, these provide some idea of the difficulties these people are facing up to day by day. It also shows how much resilience and stamina they have mustered against the greatest odds.

I hope they all have a fantastic time.