simple validation without jquery
HTML
<div>
<label>
Please Input Your Name
<input type="text" id="testVal" />
</label>
<input type="button" id="valBtn" value="Validate" onclick="validateTextField();" />
</div>
CSS
label {
color: #B4886B;
font-weight: bold;
display: block;
width: 150px;
float: left;
}
label.error {
color: red;
}