Mandatory or optional fields

Optionality is complicated.

Decide if you must have a field. Show that a field is mandatory with an asterisk.

Mandatory fields may have these unintended consequences:

• Mandatory questions can make a user give up and not fill out the form.

• Mandatory questions can add to a user’s frustration if they cannot answer the question.

• When we ask someone a mandatory question a user cannot answer, we are teaching them to lie.

• Mandatory questions assume this is your final chance to give that information. But many forms with the City are the beginning of a conversation, like in Cannabis or Building permitting.

Rather than require a field that cannot be answered, make a question optional or re-write the question to make an easier question required.