Textareas

Guidelines

Provide a text area that is appropriate for the amount of information someone needs to enter. Do not make it too large or too small.

Do testing and research of your text areas using mobile devices. Entering information using touch devices can be time-consuming.

We’ve used our foundations to design text areas. For consistency across Co-op products and services, do not change the styling of the text areas.

Label

Text areas must have a label that tells people what information to enter. Space form fields evenly and close to their associated label.

The label must be short and make it clear what information you’re asking for.

Hint text

You can add optional hint text to help people understand the information they need to enter.

Placeholder text

Placeholder text is text inside a text area that disappears when someone selects that text area.

Do not use placeholder text. It can be hard for people to remember what it said.

Error messages

Give error messages after the user submits the form.

Error messages should appear above the relevant text areas. This means they are read out by assistive technology in an order that makes sense.

Go to the guidelines on form validation.

Focus ring

The focus ring appears as a purple outline around any object, including text areas, when someone selects it.

Do not remove the focus ring. Some people who use assistive technology need it to navigate our products and services.