Re: dropdown selections: default values or no?

I like to use radio buttons for yes/no.  Typically radio buttons start
out with neither checked; that can be your cue to prompt that the field
is required.

Jacob Mattison
Web Developer

-----Original Message-----
From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected]

But we have a similar problem with mandatory check boxes. The check box
has two states (yes/no).  How can we make sure the user meant really
"No" and didn't just forget to check the box?  Should we then use a drop
down for Yes, No and use "None" as a default value?

Currently, we propose a mixed state for the check box (check box in
green) when the user gets to our form.  The user then has to click once
to check the box and click a second time to uncheck it.  

Any proposition on how to treat mandatory check box with no default
value?

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