Why do tech guys love drop downs?

Recently I’ve been involved with implementing Design Thinking and best practice UX for a heavy technical suit of applications. Although I’m pushing collaboration and inclusivity, especially with the developers, I can recognise that look in their eye when I’m evangelising best practice and stressing user’s needs and wants.

It’s not their fault.

To give you a snapshot of this established and mature Agile team, we need to step back. Within a heavily regulated financial development environment, tech guys concentrate primarily on tech functionality. Task orientated user flow (UX) followed by aesthetics and that ‘delight’ moment (UI) very much take very a back seat.

So cycling back round to the title of this post, I get constantly asked “Please can we use a drop down here’. I’m not Mr Anti-Dropdown but I always ask why?

Let’s NOT use a drop-down

Drop-downs seems to be a one-stop shop killer solution for every developer’s requirement. We have a registration form to design, and there is a question about gender. M or F, ‘Lets use a drop-down’. A news article page within a CMS where an editor can choose a collection of background brand colours; ‘Lets use a drop-down’. A mobile home page with three sections, ‘Lets use a drop-down’. Although not so much with iOS developers, it seems this breed have a tighter aesthetic.

The ‘why not’ revolves around these three simple points;

1. Hiding selection choices behind a drop-down isn’t best practice. Especially when there is the on-screen real estate available.
   
2. Displaying the user choices adds immediate vision and scope, reduces the cognitive load and allows the user to see their destination.
   
3. For consistency across platforms, would that mean a drop-down on iOS devices – now you Apple fan base out there love your Apple T-Shirts and the WWDC Conference, but it doesn’t dictate best practice UX? This would not be my recommendation – especially the ‘nasty’ native iOS touch drop down.

I can fully appreciate when you have a selection of more than say 6 – 8 items (this number varies) then you should default to drop downs. But the bigger question is; If you could provide an option for the user to click straight through, where they can see all their choices at a single glance, and you have the on-screen real estate the you should absolutely push for a more transparent solution.

The 100 option drop-down

A classic example is the auspicious country-selector with it’s 100 options. There is no no quick and easy overview option. And those of you from an ‘United” country, well it is potluck whether you’ve been bumped to the top or your country is listed by one of its other names. My preferred choice is to use auto complete menu instead – need visual

When select menu has less than 7 options it suffers from a lack of up-front information. The user has to click in order to see the available options.

So what’s the definitive best practice answer then?

When to use on desktop

For web you should use radio buttons when choices under 7. Your users will be able immediately scan how many options they have and what each of those options are, without clicking (or typing) anything to reveal this information.

This is particularly true for the ‘Please select your gender question’. At the start for the 21st century there are definitely under 7 choices here, so please use radio buttons.

Use Mobile convenient add-ons to boost your productivity

User are discouraged by the perception of many taps. There is always the ‘fat finger’ issues, but more importantly today mobile savvy Gen X, Y or Z, who interact everyday with data driven (server side) continual validation apps. Always-on spell check, auto fill name and address field and real time dynamic delivery options for example. This is especially true on the smaller screen – speed, convenience and time are crucial factors when completing tasks.

Conclusion

Avoiding dropdown menus is a crucial design pattern on mobile platforms. Tests show users are 60% faster and alternative, better UX choices do reduce usage errors. Experienced developers know what they know, as a future thinking UX-er you should always challenge, ask the right questions and be the user; Does this control choice make my life easier? And there it is, the eternal question for today modern UX designer.