A minor adjustment of the ELMER Guidelines, version 2.1, will soon be finished. Most of the changes will be a matter of wording, having seen some misunderstandings because of unclear expressions in the current guidelines. We will also come up with more illustrations, perhaps visualize the same point in different ways to show that ELMER not only forces the designer to follow regulations but still gives a lot of freedom for different visual designs.
Unfortunately the draft only exists in Norwegian, but this will be the most interesting changes from version 2.0:
1) The Navigation Area
We have learned that we do not need the page overview for small forms, covering only one logical topic.
2) The Information Area
In the new version we clarify that the requirements regarding help texts and error messages are instructions on where to put the information, not on creating visual horizontal lines or boxes with different colors dividing the screen picture. A physical difference or separation between the input area and the information area makes it more difficult for the user to understand the relation between field and info. For the same reason we also stress that the information elements shall be placed close to the relevant field.
3) Response dependent questions
A new requirement will make sure there is an acceptable contrast (color difference)between background, dimmed text and active text elements. We have experienced that some ELMER solutions are difficult to handle for weak-sighted users in this matter. We will also make it more clear that only a few questions can be dimmed (“greyed”) on the same page. And that a long sequence of rarely relevant questions rather should be established as a separate track.
As soon as the new version is approved, we will distribute an English version on the website. If you register on http://www.brreg.no/english/elmer/contact.html, you will be notified as soon as it is finalized.
On http://www.brreg.no/english/elmer/ you will find more about ELMER. If you would like to introduce new users to the ELMER concept, we recommend the ELMER test form. It illustrates the different functionalities, and in this example the help texts are being used to explain what happens on each step.
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