Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
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Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#2IMHO the best option for inputting a small integer value is the combination of a text field and a stepper, which has been around for a long time and has its own name (for touchscreen operation, the +/- buttons could be made larger and horizontally, like the steppers shown):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)
For dates, a calendar control would probably be appropriate.
I'm a bit puzzled as to why dropdowns are a "4 tap operation" - once to dropdown and once to select, with possibly some intervening scrolling if it's a lengthy list. Where are the extra 2 taps coming from...?
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#3This 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.
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#4IMHO the best option for inputting a small integer value is the combination of a text field and a stepper, which has been around for a long time and has its own name (for touchscreen operation, the +/- buttons could be made larger and horizontally, like the steppers shown): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing) For dates, a calendar control would probably be appropriate. I'm a bit puzzled as to why dropdo…
>I'm a bit puzzled as to why dropdowns are a "4 tap operation"
Either they count 'moving on' as a tap, or they just assume that on average you scroll at least twice: "First tap the control, then scroll (usually more than once), find & select your target, and finally move on."
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#5IMHO the best option for inputting a small integer value is the combination of a text field and a stepper, which has been around for a long time and has its own name (for touchscreen operation, the +/- buttons could be made larger and horizontally, like the steppers shown): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing) For dates, a calendar control would probably be appropriate. I'm a bit puzzled as to why dropdo…
On iOS I could three steps:
1. tap dropdown to select
2. scroll list
3. tap 'Done'
But with any list of significant length (the reason you would use a dropdown in the first place) you'll probably need a few actions to scroll to the right item.
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#6This 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.
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.
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#7There is a small irony that when reading an article about mobile UX, the website has disabled zoom meaning I can't actually see any of the images in the article.
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#8The main misuse of dropdowns is as an alternative to a few (or even just two) radio buttons. [1]
The only possible reasoning I can see is the flexibility it provides for I18N.
[1] http://jgthms.com/dont-use-dropdowns-for-a-few-items-only.ht...
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#9When I click on an image on the page to zoom on it, it redirect me to twitter, then I have to click on it again, why ?
Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort
#10This 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.
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.