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The Role of Input Masking in Web Forms

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Sara MitevskaMay 14th, 2024
•May 14th, 2024• 6 minutes read
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role of input masking

What is input masking

Input masking is a software development practice used to format user input within form fields. It's a way to restrict how certain information is being typed into a field. This ensures that users follow a specific pattern, such as for phone numbers, dates, or credit card numbers and more. It prevents errors and makes data entry smoother, resulting in more accurate and consistent information.

Purpose and Benefits

Input masking serves two main purposes: improving data accuracy and enhancing user experience.

Reduces errors

By enforcing a specific format, input masking helps prevent users from entering data incorrectly, minimising typos and invalid entries.

Improves user experience

Input masking acts as a guide, automatically formatting data as the user types. This eliminates the need for users to remember specific formats and speeds up data entry.

Improves data readability

Additionally, a well-designed mask can visually organise the information, making it easier to read and review.

Common Use Cases

Input masking can be used in various scenarios. Such as:

Formatting Personal Information

This includes fields like:
  • Phone numbers: Masks can ensure users include area codes, dashes, and proper formatting for their region.
  • Social Security numbers or National Insurance numbers: Masks can automatically insert hyphens at the appropriate positions.
  • Passport numbers or ID numbers: Masks can enforce specific lengths and alphanumeric character combinations.

Financial Data

  • Credit card numbers: Masks can enforce specific lengths and include spaces for better readability.
  • Bank account numbers: Masks can ensure users enter the correct number of digits and any routing information required.
  • Currency amounts: Masks can format numbers with commas and decimal places depending on the currency. Additionally masks can be used to append the suitable currency symbol.

Dates and Times

Masks can be used to:
  • Standardize date formats: (e.g., MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY).
  • Specify time formats: (e.g., 24-hour clock, 12-hour clock with AM/PM).

IP Addresses

Masks can ensure users enter the correct number of octets separated by periods.

Postal/Zip Codes

Masks can enforce the specific format for different countries or regions.

Product Codes or Serial Numbers

Masks can ensure that these codes/identifiers follow the internal tracking format.

Accessibility Requirements

Making sure everyone can benefit from input masking is very important. That means it should work well with tools such as screen readers that people might use. Developers need to make sure input masking doesn't create barriers for anyone by providing clear instructions and alternative ways to input data.

Here are some suggestions to ensure everyone has a good user experience:
  • Include a label with a for attribute related to the id of the input element.
  • Use hint text that will help the users understand what they need to input.
  • Make the helper text available to screen readers. This can be achieved by using accessibility attributes such as aria-describedby or aria-labeledby.
  • Use the correct input field type that will allow users on a mobile device to see the proper keyboard.
  • Avoid placing the mask format in the value property of the field. This might cause the screen reader to read it and cause confusion.

Implementing input masking using FormFusion

When it comes to input masking in React, FormFusion takes care of everything so that the developers can focus on other important things. The library offers built-in input masking functionality that can be easily applied to any input field by using the provided 'mask' property. If you're not familiar with FormFusion yet, make sure to checkout the documentation page first.

Let's see it in action. Bellow is an example of how simple is to apply input masking on an input field in React using the FormFusion library (The full code and demo can be found on the links at the end of this post).

  <Form onSubmit={onSubmit}>
    <Input
      id="credit-card-number-hyphen"
      name="credit-card-number-hyphen"
      type="credit-card-number-hyphen"
      mask="####-####-####-####"
    />
    <button type="submit">Submit</button>
  </Form>

Here is how the result looks:

input masking example

When to avoid input masking

Even though input masking can be useful when applied correctly, you should carefully decide when to use it since it can also lead to a poor user experience and frustration when used in the wrong scenario or if implemented incorrectly. Here are some use cases where using input masking might not be the best choice:

When a free-form field is required

The most obvious scenario is when there isn’t a common input pattern to use. For example: email address, full name, street address etc. These are the type of fields that the user's input should not be restriced and they should be allowed to enter their data freely. To prevent errors or incorrect data in these scenarios, validation checks should be performed.

When the format is too complicated for a valid input mask

Consider a situation where users need to enter vehicle identification numbers (VINs). VINs can vary in length and include both letters and numbers, often with specific patterns determined by the manufacturer. Trying to force a fixed input mask for VINs might confuse users, as they may struggle to fit their VIN into the required format. It's better to let users enter their VINs freely and then use validation checks to ensure accuracy before submitting the form.

Alternatives

In such cases where input masking is not suitable you can use a different approach and still provide a good user experience. For example:

  • Format the data after the user completes the field: You can allow free-form input and after the user enters their information (e.g on blur), transform the data into the appropriate format. This way, it's easier for the user to input the information quickly and it is also displayed in a easy readable format.
  • Avoid input masking entirely: Use well designed validation with user-friendly messages instead and make sure to display helpful labels and text that will guide the user to enter the information in the appropriate format.

Conclusion

Input masking is a useful tool for formatting data input which improves accuracy and user experience. However, its application requires careful consideration since it may not be suitable for every scenario. For example, with free-form input or complex data formats, alternative approaches like post-input formatting or robust validation checks may be more suitable.

Prioritizing accessibility and user experience is important for effective integration of input masking without creating barriers for users. Using libraries such as FormFusion can provide you with a simple and easy way to correctly integrate input masking in your application.


The code for the example shown in this post can be found on Github.
The code and demo can be found on Stackblitz.