Re^3: multi-select html forms

I agree that it is rare that so many options all at once would be necessary, but one example comes to mind. On some job-seeking sites they ask something like "what regions would you like to work in". Then there is a multi-select box with entries like

Canada, any
Canada, Maritimes, any
Canada, Maritimes, Newfoundland
Canada, Maritimes, Newfoundland, St. John's region
...
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and so on. I remember it being well-ordered enough that it wasn't difficult to find any particular region, but there were far too many options to make into checkboxes. The fact that any number of regions could be selected, as well as the fact that there were a couple of levels of precision, meant that it would be difficult to redo it (by grouping) in two pages. It probably would have taken three, and that's more than any single question should take. There was a similar situation for the 'what fields of work to search' question, and if there are too many questions on a form that take two or more pages to complete... well, that's no good.

In a situation like that I feel that multi-select lists are justified. I do agree, however, that such cases are rare, and for the vast majority of forms checkboxes are just fine.

LAI
:eof

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Re^4: multi-select html forms by Coruscate (Sexton) on Jan 27, 2003 at 20:19 UTC
Even in such a case, I would continue to argue that yes, this single question could be made into more than one page. The first one would ask which countries they would like to search in, and then the next page could display checkboxes for each of the regions within each country selected. This may well end up producing many checkboxes on the second page (hopefully too many users aren't willing to work anywhere, ie: selecting all countries), but I think some people would be surprised at the usefulness of this setup. Having one multi-select field for such information is a hassle as well as a pain. I'd select my options, then scroll up and scroll through the entire list again, making sure that I had held down the control key for every single click. Then I'd find out to my horror that I hit the shift key instead of control, and I now have 20 options selected instead of my 3. Then redo the whole thing over... Okay, now I've been a web user long enough to remember to hold the control key, so I wouldn't have this problem myself, but there are a lot of non-nerds out there who can't seem to do things in just the right way :) You have to be ready for everything! C:\>shutdown -s >> Could not shut down computer: >> Microsoft is logged in remotely.	[reply]

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Re^4: multi-select html forms
by Coruscate (Sexton) on Jan 27, 2003 at 20:19 UTC

Even in such a case, I would continue to argue that yes, this single question could be made into more than one page. The first one would ask which countries they would like to search in, and then the next page could display checkboxes for each of the regions within each country selected. This may well end up producing many checkboxes on the second page (hopefully too many users aren't willing to work anywhere, ie: selecting all countries), but I think some people would be surprised at the usefulness of this setup.

Having one multi-select field for such information is a hassle as well as a pain. I'd select my options, then scroll up and scroll through the entire list again, making sure that I had held down the control key for every single click. Then I'd find out to my horror that I hit the shift key instead of control, and I now have 20 options selected instead of my 3. Then redo the whole thing over... Okay, now I've been a web user long enough to remember to hold the control key, so I wouldn't have this problem myself, but there are a lot of non-nerds out there who can't seem to do things in just the right way :) You have to be ready for everything!

      C:\>shutdown -s
      >> Could not shut down computer:
      >> Microsoft is logged in remotely.

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