Description

Field Validations are a way of making the user understand a mistake, and how to correct it.

Types

Type	Usage	Image
Field validation error	Alerting the user on an action that will not allow them to complete the task.
Field validation warning	Alerting the user on an action that might contain a mistake or a non-fatal error.

Usage & Behaviour

Structure

A validation field consists of:

• Color frame with a small icon on the top-right corner. This marks the validation type.

• A validation Tooltip message, which appears on hover over the validated field.

• A descriptive message next to the action buttons:

  • Error messages have a higher priority than warning messages. When errors are fixed, the warning validation should then be shown.

  • Where there is limited space or a short form, no descriptive message will appear.

Examples:

Components		Error	Warning
Text Field
Text Area
Drop-down Menu
Combo Box
Numeric Stepper
Date Picker
Time Picker
Search Field		NA
Switches		NA
Slider		NA
Single check box		NA
Check box group
Grid table cell
Tabs
Call To Action with short text		on Error, the button is disabled
Call To Action with mixed errors  Error takes priority
Call to action with long text.  Pop-up size might need to expand in height

• Unlike Errors, the Warning fields can appear on top of controls which do not have a text field, since a warning can appear when there is a conflict between two controls.

Text position

• Text position can be either near the calls to action (right-aligned) or at the beginning of the row (left-aligned) according to size and available width:

Content

• Descriptive text near the action buttons.

• If only one field hasn’t passed validation, the text near the action buttons should be the same as the tooltip.

• If both Warnings and Errors are found, the text should address the Error.

• If multiple fields haven’t passed validation of the same type, the text near the action buttons should be ‘X warnings found’.

• In cases where the text is very long, the section should get a Scrollbar.
  For example:
  

  

• In general:

  • Specify why the field information has not been accepted. Your validation messages should tell users exactly why their information got rejected or may have some risk, and how it can be fixed.

  • If the values entered may impact some other part of the system, briefly explain what may be impacted.

• Keep it short!

Rephrasing examples (taken from Verint's Suite):

Internal Logic

All input fields will display the value entered by the user. If the input is invalid, an error or warning message will be displayed. Prevention of input is not allowed (e.g. not displaying characters in the field as they’re entered).

Errors and warnings can be trigger by 3 types of action:

• Syntax validation.
  Validation should be displayed while typing. For example:

  • An illegal character was typed (e.g. numeric instead of alphabetic).

  • The maximum number of characters has been exceeded (e.g. user input a 3 digit number where only 2 digits are allowed).

• Logical validation.
  Any validation that is set on the required value (e.g. Max. input of 100). In most cases, the validation will occur after the user has left the field.

• Missing input on a required field.

  • Validation is displayed as soon as the user leaves (out of focus) a required input field which has no input.

  • Note: when a form has a single required field, the validation will appear only after the user tries to submit the form.

Autocorrect. Some cases require an automatic correction of the invalid input.

• The components Pagination and Slider with a numeric input, which have a clear visible definition of a numeric range, will behave as follows.

  • An invalid value will be indicated.

  • When the user clicks outside of the field (out of focus), the entered value will automatically change to:

    • Last valid.

    • Edge range, if the input exceeds the range of options (e.g. in pagination 0 will auto-correct to 1).

• Connected fields. Where different fields are dependent on each other, and the numeric range is dynamic.
  When the user clicks outside of the field (out of focus) with an indicated invalid input, a Popup message will appear with the options of:

  • Back - returns the focus to the field with the last used input.

  • Revert - returns the focus to the field with the latest valid input (the one before the user changed it).
    

    

Default validation

• When a form or page is opened for the first time, and the fields are empty, the Missing validations should not be shown. Otherwise the whole page may be covered in validation messages from the start. However, Syntax and Logical validation should be enabled where appropriate.

• When editing a form or page where fields already have an input, all pre-existing warning messages will be displayed while the fields are out of focus.

• Only Syntax errors and warnings will be shown while the user is editing a field (it is in focus).

• All other warnings and errors (Logical and Missing) will be hidden while the user is editing a field (it is in focus). They should appear again once the user clicks outside of the field (it is out of focus).

Interaction

Validation tooltips

• Any field or tab that has validation message will also have a tooltip.

• The validation tooltip takes priority over any other tooltip (if one exists).

• By default, the location of the tooltip is to the right of the field, except where there is no space.

• See the Interaction section of Tooltips for timing information.

• Warnings and Errors have the same tooltip interaction.

Tooltips positioning examples:

Content	Examples	Comments
1 or more rows of text, to the right of the warning or error icon
Partial coverage of control		User can still click the control
Left position

Best Practices

Use field validations for any user input fields.

• 2 options for the content of the error message:

  • Generic
    The content of the message is written in advance and there is no need to refer to the specific text that the user typed, such as This is not a valid zip code.

  • Input based (Preferred where applicable)
    The content of the message can dynamically change based on the user input. Use it to clarify where the error is coming from. For example:

    • Rather than Invalid input → use Zip codes cannot contain the special character "%".

    • Rather than You cannot book this flight. Please select another destination or date. → Use Direct flights to Dublin are only available in August. Please select another destination or date. 

• For complicated fields, using an example in the tooltip message can help.

• Try to avoid negative words. For example rather than

  • Rather than Password does not meet requirements or Invalid Password → use Password must contain 8 alphanumeric characters.
    

Accessibility Compliance

Unless otherwise specified, see our general compliance information in Fundamentals - Accessibility.

Design

Zeplin link	Screen thumbnail
https://app.zeplin.io/project/5970b366bee38cf87b2de932/screen/5baca0fa7044c49e813fe220
https://app.zeplin.io/project/5970b366bee38cf87b2de932/screen/5baca11066034667cc35f576

Code

<<a box containing the code - discuss with Femi>>