Compulsory field indicators?

After having vented my frustration about opting out of marketing programs on a previous blog, I couldn't let my recent discovery pass without commenting.

On an online form, the most common practice for a required field is to use an asterix (*). This lets us know which fields are compulsory to complete. People are now familiar with this.

I recently recieved a feedback form from Crystal Ski holidays. On this, they have an asterix (*) next to various fields. Going by common practice, I would have thought, without looking at the key, that these fields are compulsory.

But no! The key (which is at the bottom of the form rather than the top) states '*Please provide if you agree to be contacted for marketing and research by us and other selected third parties.' See image below...


By completing what I thought were compulsory fields, I would have signed up to their marketing program, which is certainly not my intention.

So...

• Allow customers to opt-in rather than opt-out of marketing programs.
• Follow existing convention and to not try to trick the customer.
• Don't use people’s familiarity of required field indicators to get them to sign up for email marketing without realising it.
• Always put the text describing the indicator at the top of the fields. It is a piece of information the user needs to know before completing the forms, not after they think they’ve finished their task.