Blooper 28: Poor Label Placement

From GUI Bloopers, by Jeff Johnson (Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 2000). Used without permission.

Too often, label placement is ignored or treated as trivial. However, there are right and wrong ways of doing it. Below are four examples of a form that specifies a recurring event. Only one of these is correct. Which one is it, and what is wrong with the others?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Answer:

1. Label is too far from the text field. The until label is closer to the weekly text field, causing them to appear associated.
2. Correct!
3. Misaligned text baseline. Nothing lines up.
4. Misaligned text baseline. Labels line up with each other and text fields line up with each other, but the text field baseline is below the label baseline.