Remove errors for form questions that no longer apply

What to change

Ask the supplier to keep required questions and error messages aligned with the visitor's current choices, including after they change their mind.

A worked example

Illustrative example

Selecting a return call requires a number. After changing to email contact, the old missing-number error disappears and the email requirement becomes the relevant check.

Healthcare website design showing connected desktop and mobile service and enquiry layouts. — Make the service and next step clear on every screen.

Healthcare website accessibility illustrated by a focus outline, keyboard key, contrast samples and form. — Review keyboard access, contrast and understandable form fields.

Why this matters to your practice

A visitor who changes from telephone to email contact should not be blocked by an old telephone-number warning. This is a common place for a form to feel contradictory: the screen offers one route while the underlying rules still expect another. Ask your supplier to demonstrate a change of mind after an error has appeared. Agree which questions belong to each route, and check the final review reflects the current choice. Merely making an unwanted message disappear is not sufficient.

How to check the result

Accept when errors always describe the current answers and reachable questions, including after several changes of direction.

A mistake to avoid

Simply hiding the red message can leave the underlying form blocked by a rule the visitor cannot see.

Turn reading into a next step

Your action checklist

Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.

Checks to discussChoose an option that reveals a required field and leave it blank. Submit to produce an error, then switch to an option where that question is irrelevant.Inspect the summary, inline messages and final submission. Ask the supplier to demonstrate that the hidden question no longer blocks the chosen route.Switch back again to the original option. Check whether its current requirement and any retained value are presented clearly without reviving an unexplained stale message.

Your answers and notes

Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.

What happens next, and who will do it?

Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.

Related guides

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