"The option that feels most natural to me — given that we read from left to right — is clearly wrong." - Well, we write punctuation signs like "!" or "?" or smiles :) to the right. So it seems natural to take asterix for a punctuation symbol "obligatory" to the sentence.

I belong to thise who put asterix to the right of the label.

Most users won't actually read the labels but skim between the label and the field (Probably starting at the field). So thinking it terms of what way people read is perhaps not the right thing to do.

Putting it in between the two seems to make it most noticable - it's as close to both the label and the field as it can be so no matter where they look they'll hopefully see it.

This heatmap I think highlights the problem There is very few glances to the left of the label (in fact some labels aren't even looked at!)

(I just realised you have asteriks on Name, and Email Address...I never noticed these when I was filling my details in!)

To be honest and in spite of the tremendous respect I have for Luke W., the place between label and text field is the last one where I'd look for the "required" information.

It feels too close to the label, and an asterisk is not that distinctive when set next to text. I prefer it on the far right, to the right of the text field, because that removes it from the label and focuses its meaning on the text field, which happens to be the element that has to be filled in.

It also allows for easy scanning which text fields require input before I am allowed to submit the data. Presuming the text fields are all aligned, of course. :)

Just my two cents!

An interesting follow up this.
For alignment issues with the label and form field i think its best having the labels right aligned. This stops different sized gaps being shown when you have labels of different lengths.

The other option which I do sometimes is put the labels just above the form fields. This is especially useful if some of the labels are quite long.

Fair point made by burkanov. Special characters are meant to be on the right as most people expect them there unless we are trying to rediscover the wheel.
Asterisk should be on the right but maybe it needs extra emphasis (bold or different colour) so it does not get lost in the text!
Am I connecting?

The option that you prefer sounds logic, but for me the reason it is most common placed to the right of the field is because user can advice the mark if it is alone and it is more visible than next to the label (usually text). Some times users can feel more like a restriction or an order if it is close to the label, and the other option is more like a requirement, more genlte.

About the last question, personally I prefer labels aligned to rigth because field and label are close, and there is no an empty sense or unjustfied view after the labels, but, as traditionally we say, it depends, of the style and the design. It can be used as designs need.

After the label is best (closest proximity to label and field), before the label is second best (fastest scanning), after input is the worst. Putting the label after the input makes little sense. It's very inefficient since you have to scan all the way across the input to the label to see what is actually required. The input itself conveys no information as to what should go in it.

I prefer to put the asterisk to the right of the label as this seems logical to me and also allows for that context to be read and understood by screen readers and those using screen magnifiers. If it is after the input then it will often get missed by those users.

In terms of label alignment I always right align as this allows for a better visual scan along the line.

Your updated style on this comment form match how I've been doing my form fields as well. The one difference is that I don't use colons. I think the :* looks a little messy, and since the labels are right aligned and right next to a field, I don't think there's any room for confusion.

I'm with you - I prefer to put the asterisk to the left of the label, but I also like the idea of a subtly different style for required fields to make them really stand out.

I wouldn't put the asterisk to the right of the input for the same reason I wouldn't put the label or instructions for the field to the right - basically that a visually impaired user wouldn't receive the information until after they'd already completed (or attempted to complete) the form field.

Asterisks were historically used to alert the reader of a footnote. The asterisk is placed after the word or phrase to be explained in the footnote. The footnote is preceeded by the asterisk. This is as simple and unadorned* as it can be explained.

The internet turned grammar into more of an issue of popularity, and it's just the latest tool to do so. It's nothing new, just on a scale like nothing before it. Whereas there are grammatical rules and gidelines they will easily be pushed aside to cater to the majority. One of my most important web design rules is to watch the "big boys" or "top dogs" online and do what they do. Let them spend millions of dollars on the market research and I'll simply copy what they do mainly because I am doing it for a clien that needs to turn a profit so I have to cater to the masses. If Google, Yahoo, Microsoft (I know, I know), Dell, etc.. all started puting the asterisk on the left of the field then I'd probably follow suit. If your survey returned results that went against what felt natural to me, well, I'd accomodate to cater to the majority with exception of work thet reflected on me more personally like my personal web site.

So, with all that said, and to be grammatically correct, the question should be: Does the asterisk belong on the right of the label or the right of the form field?

Putting the asterisk on the left of label would make it the footnote and your footnote belongs at the bottom.

• These fields are required.

Don't take this next comment personally, but I have had this thought before and it just seems appropriate to make this comment now. You said that what feels natural to you is to have the asterisk on the left. Do you think the day isn't too far away where peple think capitalization/punctuation doesn't feel natural?

and on that note I just have to say that all of the comments on this topic are amazingly well written no lack of punctuation grammar or smartz all up on this blog ;)

• Without adornment or embellishment; simple or plain.

Interesting thread...I'm usually an advocate for putting the asterisk in front of the label with the labels right-justified and an equal amt of space between the labels and fields. In my mind, that's the most noticable way of indicating required fields as most of us read lef to right, and this requires the least amt of scanning. I have never seen the asterisk after a field label, and would not recommend it. The W3C has related recommendations for form accessibility at http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2005/10/forms.

We are all for putting the red asterisk on the right hand side at the top. What we are undecided on is whether to have a second 'confirm email' field or not.

Some users say that too many mistakes are made if you must only enter the email once. Others say that is a bad user experience to enter information twice.

Usually we opt for entering email twice since copy & paste isn't that difficult but we're very interested in web designers' & usability consultants' take on this.

I think that is very much a "it depends" type of question. I would instinctively align things to the left, it keeps everything looking regular. However this could leave a large gap between the label and the box.

The best thing is to take it on a case by case basis to assess the length of the labels and how it looks best.