Luke posts on form labels, speed, and use.
Top-aligned labels tend to reduce completion rates the most for familiar data (i.e. address, credit card, etc.) because they only require a single eye fixation to take in both input label & field. Top-aligned labels also work well for forms that require localization or long labels as there is plenty of horizontal real estate to expand/contract the label without negatively impacting the overall page layout. Top-aligned labels, however, do take up a lot of vertical real estate.
Did he mean to say increase rather than reduce?
I may be totally off but the reasoning in this seems counter-intuitive.
UPDATE: Sure enough…I email Luke and he corrected his little typo…but in a slightly different spot than I expected.
Top-aligned labels tend to reduce completion times (how long it takes to complete a form) the most for familiar data (i.e. address, credit card, etc.) because they only require a single eye fixation to take in both input label & field.
I thought he would say “tend to increase completion rates” but his correction makes more sense. To increase completion rates of a form would require more than just label placement help. Whereas completion times on a form are fairly form-specific.
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