Form Feedback on the Web: A Comparison of Popup Alerts and In-Form Error Messages

Abstract

The literature on form feedback mostly focuses on in-form error messages, yet popup alert messages are still prevalent on the web. This study, therefore, set out to identify the differences between popup alerts and in-form messages. A study involving n = 100 participants was designed. The results show only a small significant difference between popup alerts and in-form messages in terms of task completion time. Subjective evaluations of the two methods did not reveal any significant preference for either method.