Monday, 22 June 2009

Funny web form: salutations galore!






Another funny lesson in web design and usability (not!). From the webform that gave us "Unknown" as a choice for gender and the option to locate Akita-ken in the UK, comes another gem - how not to do a dropdown or field for title / honorific!

Start of list


End of list

Here's the full list for your delectation (3 pages long if 1 a line so I pipe separated them):

Admiral | Air Commodore | Air Marshal | Air Marshall Sir | Air Vice-Marshal | AirChief Marshal Sir | Ambassador | Associate Professor | Associate Professor Dr | Bapak | Baron | Baroness | Brigadier | Brother | Cand Ing | Canon | Captain | Centenier | Chevalier Dr | Chief | Colonel | Colonel Dr | Commander | Commodore | Councillor | Councillor Mrs | Count | Countess | Dame | Dato | Dato Dr | Dipl Ing | Dott | Dr | Dr Eur Ing | Dr Group Captain | Dr Ing | Dr Lt General | Dr Mrs | Dr Professor | Duke | Duke of | Emeritus Dr | Emeritus Professor | Emeritus Professor Lord | Emeritus Professor Sir | Emeritus Reader | Engineer | Esq | Eur Ing | Eur Ing Dr | Eur Ing Professor | Father | Field Marshal The Lord | Field Marshall The Lord | Flight Lieutenant | Flying Officer | General | General Sir | Governor | Group Captain | His Excellency | His Excellency Dr | His Honour Judge | Hon | Hon Senator | Hon Sir | HRH Duke of | Inst. Rear-Admiral Sir | Ir | Judge | Lady | Lieutenant | Lieutenant Colonel | Lieutenant General | Lieutenant General Sir | Lieutenant-Commander | Lord | Madame | Majesty King | Majesty Queen | Major | Major General | Master | MD | Member Of Parliament | Miss | Mme | Most Reverend | Mother | Mr | Mrs | Ms | Prebendary Dr | Prince | Professor | Professor Dame | Professor Dr | Professor Dr Emeritus | Professor Emerita | Professor Emeritus | Professor Emeritus Sir | Professor Lord | Professor Sir | Puan Sri | Puan Sri Datin | Rabbi | Rear Admiral | Regents Professor | Reverend | Reverend Dr | Rt. Hon. Lord | Second Lieutenant | Senator | Sheikh | Sir | Sir Dr | Sister | Sq Lieutenant Commander | Squadron Leader | Surgeon Captain | Surgeon Captain RN | Surgeon Commander RN | Surgeon Commodore RN | Surgeon Lieutenant | Surgeon Rear Admiral RN | Tan Sri | Tan Sri Dato Seri | The Baroness | The Earl of | The Hon | The Hon Dr | The Hon Mrs | The Hon Sir | The Hon. | The Honorable | The Honourable | The Lord | The Reverend | The Reverend Dr | The Rt Hon | The Rt Hon Countess of | The Rt Hon Earl | The Rt Hon Lord | The Rt Hon Sir | Very Reverend | Viscount | Viscountess | Wing Commander | The Revd Dr | HE Mr | Sheikha | The Rt Hon the Lord | The Hon. Lady | HRH The Duke of | HRH The Prince of | Her Highness Sheikha | HRH The Princess Royal | Rt Hon | Cav.Professor | His Excellency Mr | The Earl | HE Dr | Sultan | HM Sultan | HM The Sultan | The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor | Air Chief Marshal Sir | Vice Admiral | Vice Admiral Sir | Professor the Lord | San | Colonel Eur Ing

What's more, as an added annoyance, some of the titles aren't in their alphabetical location in the dropdown list, but have been bunged at the very very far end - as if people would think to scroll down to check there if what they want isn't in its correct alphabetical place.

It's good that the list is multicultural (see my post about bad name fields validation checks), and you have to admire their determination to include all possible combinations and permutations of different titles that they can think of - but why couldn't they have just used a simple text box?

Maybe they wanted to standardise the spellings so that they could work out exactly how many Chevalier Drs had signed up! I wanna be "Flying Officer Sheikha", I do (ha, they missed that combo).

You also have to admire their optimism (or inclusivity?) in listing "Majesty King", "Majesty Queen", "HRH The Prince of" and "HRH The Princess Royal".

(I do happen to know of a princess who just uses one of many titles, for "Father's profession" puts "Civil servant" and for "Mother's profession" puts "Housewife"! Somehow, I don't think "King" is an option in most forms.)

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