Websites & patient experience · Planning worksheet

Form errors: help people recover

Illustrative situation

A form rejects a submission with a generic error and erases everything the visitor entered.

The decision

Show which fields need attention and how to correct them. Preserve information where appropriate, and make the error understandable without relying on colour alone.

Rehearse this before accepting the change

Submit a fictional invalid address; verify the correction path is clear and usable.

Use fictional examples and an authorised test environment. Record what happened, the evidence you inspected and any issue that still needs a responsible owner.

Choose a useful measure

Track repeated validation failures and abandonment at submission.

Agree the definition and baseline with the team doing the work. Review the result over a comparable period and note other changes that could affect it.

Healthcare website design showing connected desktop and mobile service and enquiry layouts.
Make the service and next step clear on every screen.
Healthcare website accessibility illustrated by a focus outline, keyboard key, contrast samples and form.
Review keyboard access, contrast and understandable form fields.
Healthcare website testing with desktop and mobile forms, a checklist and success and error states.
Check complete journeys and explain failures clearly.

Your planning worksheet

Use these checks to prepare a discussion with your team or supplier. Tick a check when you have recorded the decision or evidence, rather than when a feature has simply been promised.

Decisions to record

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Further reading

These primary sources provide additional context for the project decisions above.

Related decisions

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