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The article suggests radio buttons instead of most select menus. I can appreciate the ease with which one can skim radio buttons vs select options; however, on
by kileywm 10y ago
The article suggests radio buttons instead of most select menus.
I can appreciate the ease with which one can skim radio buttons vs select options; however, once there are more than a few options, the sprawl of radio buttons can be a little ridiculous.
The screen space required to display 50 states via radio buttons vs select menu is tremendous. At that point, I suspect it would be difficult to determine where the list of radio options end and the next form field begins.
- navait 10y agoZip code is usually a better way if it's relevant - you can fill in the state/town automatically. Obviously, there are situations where that would not apply.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eric_the_read 10y agoEven with ZIP codes, they don't always map to a single state. http://gis.stackexchange.com/a/167333 http://gis.stackexchange.com/a/167333 lists 13 zip codes that map to multiple states, never mind cities.
- wtracy 10y agoTo top it off, most of the author's complaints about drop-down menus apply doubly so to radio buttons. Selecting with the keyboard? My browser lets me select a menu, type a letter, and jump to the first entry starting with that letter. I've never seen that work with radio buttons (though I admit I haven't tried it recently). Selecting from a long list on a phone? Selecting a menu on my phone gives me a popup menu that scrolls independently of the rest of the page. Selecting from a list of radio buttons requires a scrolling action that changes my location in the page. If I want to return to a field above the list of radio buttons, I have to scroll back. My non-expert advice: Never use radio buttons for a set of more options than you can guarantee will fit on the screen simultaneously. If your UI has any mobile users, that probably limits you to four options, maybe less.
- Apofis 10y agoYeah, for example, entering your State or Country would be impractical with a radio field.
- oneeyedpigeon 10y agoI was wondering myself what the use case for 50 options would be, then I thought about countries. However, a select list is usually far from ideal: are there 'popular' choices at the top? is the list grouped by continent? is my country "united kingdom" or "great britain" or "england"? is the drop-down set to display an absurdly small (i think the default often is) number of options? If you insist I enter my country to conform to the exact string you've chosen for it, please let me just type it into a well-implemented auto-completing text box.