Jeff Atwood wants to know why HTML forms have to be death by a thousand tiny textboxes, and proposes a change.
The classic example of this is phone number, which typically forces you to tab through three annoying little textboxes to enter a single number:
On the other hand, it’s often a good thing to do it like everyone else does. How do you know which to do?
I think UI experimentation is not only desirable, but necessary. If we don't experiment, we can't evolve UI forward. However, you have to do it the right way:
- Have a complete understanding of the current convention and how it arose
- Have a good, reasoned argument for deviating from the convention
- Collect usage data on your experiments
- Make decisions based on the usage data
If you're not collecting usage data, or your reason is "it looks better this way", then you're doing it wrong, and you should stick with the conventions.