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This is the case for mobile phones. On a desktop or laptop, the dropdowns are preferable because most browsers will let you select the day, month year using yo

This is the case for mobile phones. On a desktop or laptop, the dropdowns are preferable because most browsers will let you select the day, month year using your keyboard.

cstuder 11y ago
For desktop, I generally prefer checkboxes. Instead of having to discover the available options in dropbox, you can see all of them instantly in a list.
onion2k 11y ago
You're right that people should be able to type in a date, but I'd argue that it's preferable to have a text input with a button to open a calendar control - many users don't know that you can use the keyboard to select dropdown box items so they'll use their mouse, and that negatively impacts their experience. If you want a user to be able to use their keyboard then the input should look like a keyboard input box.
josteink 11y ago
> On a desktop or laptop, the dropdowns are preferable because most browsers will let you select the day, month year using your keyboard. Not only that, but they are text-search using your keyboard too.
andrewingram 11y ago
Do you think an average computer user fills out forms using just the keyboard? I'm a developer and I still use the mouse.
- iopq 11y ago
  Do you think I can guess where "United States" is in your country dropdown? Oh, it's the sixth country, even though everything else is alphabetic order, but Sweden is on top because apparently you're based in Sweden and so is Denmark and Norway because apparently you have a lot of customers there. But I'm supposed to know this while looking under U and seeing "United States minor islands"? It's really annoying, I just type United and it usually jumps to the correct thing (the first United it sees)
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    Try being British. Things have standardised a lot in the last few years but the UK ends up all over the place on drop downs.
auganov 11y ago
Yes. And please - if you feel like reinventing the dropdown be decent enough to re-implement that feature. Example of an offender: https://www.google.com/advanced_search https://www.google.com/advanced_search
- softawre 11y ago
  Yikes. What's funny is the article writer is a product director at Google. Fix this Luke! http://www.lukew.com/about/ http://www.lukew.com/about/
  - GFischer 11y ago
    To be fair, that page predates Luke's stint at Google by a long time (I don't know how long has it been since it last received an update, many of Google's features are sadly neglected).
- icebraining 11y ago
  Which ones are you talking about? I can use the keyboard to select values on those dropdowns just fine (at least in Firefox).
  - auganov 11y ago
    I don't have firefox, unfortunately. Anyways, the feature I'm talking about at least (dunno about my parent) is being able to select an item by typing characters - i.e. typing e-n-g should get you English.

This is the case for mobile phones. On a desktop or laptop, the dropdowns are preferable because most browsers will let you select the day, month year using your keyboard.

cstuder 11y ago

For desktop, I generally prefer checkboxes. Instead of having to discover the available options in dropbox, you can see all of them instantly in a list.

onion2k 11y ago

You're right that people should be able to type in a date, but I'd argue that it's preferable to have a text input with a button to open a calendar control - many users don't know that you can use the keyboard to select dropdown box items so they'll use their mouse, and that negatively impacts their experience. If you want a user to be able to use their keyboard then the input should look like a keyboard input box.

josteink 11y ago

> On a desktop or laptop, the dropdowns are preferable because most browsers will let you select the day, month year using your keyboard. Not only that, but they are text-search using your keyboard too.

andrewingram 11y ago

Do you think an average computer user fills out forms using just the keyboard? I'm a developer and I still use the mouse.

iopq 11y ago
Do you think I can guess where "United States" is in your country dropdown? Oh, it's the sixth country, even though everything else is alphabetic order, but Sweden is on top because apparently you're based in Sweden and so is Denmark and Norway because apparently you have a lot of customers there. But I'm supposed to know this while looking under U and seeing "United States minor islands"? It's really annoying, I just type United and it usually jumps to the correct thing (the first United it sees)
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  Try being British. Things have standardised a lot in the last few years but the UK ends up all over the place on drop downs.

auganov 11y ago

Yes. And please - if you feel like reinventing the dropdown be decent enough to re-implement that feature. Example of an offender: https://www.google.com/advanced_search https://www.google.com/advanced_search

softawre 11y ago
Yikes. What's funny is the article writer is a product director at Google. Fix this Luke! http://www.lukew.com/about/ http://www.lukew.com/about/
- GFischer 11y ago
  To be fair, that page predates Luke's stint at Google by a long time (I don't know how long has it been since it last received an update, many of Google's features are sadly neglected).
icebraining 11y ago
Which ones are you talking about? I can use the keyboard to select values on those dropdowns just fine (at least in Firefox).
- auganov 11y ago
  I don't have firefox, unfortunately. Anyways, the feature I'm talking about at least (dunno about my parent) is being able to select an item by typing characters - i.e. typing e-n-g should get you English.