Re: dropdown selections: default values or no?

 
I agree that metaphors can become irrelevant. While not abandoning best
practices , the focus should be on whether the design element affords
the correct expected behavior. 

Nan

-----Original Message-----
From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hal Shubin
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 7:20 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: dropdown selections: default values or no?

At 11:21 AM 5/31/2007, Claudia Alden Case wrote:

>Jacob,
>I disagree with your suggestion of leaving none of the radio buttons
on.
>
> >From a usability standpoint and by definition, radio buttons should 
> >always
>have one choice selected.  Otherwise, you break the metaphor.
>
>Radio buttons got their name from the physical buttons used on radios 
>to select preset stations - when one of the buttons was pressed, it 
>would pop out when another button was pushed in.

But maybe the metaphor isn't a good one anymore.

I've heard many people call them "radial buttons" because "radio
buttons" doesn't mean anything to them (not that "radial buttons" is
meaningful). I guess car radios and home stereos still have radio
buttons, where you press one to unselect the previous selection and make
the new one. But it's not like back in the early 70s, when you
*knew* you were pressing a button because you could feel something
happening. And as you say, the selected one remained pressed in. 
("Boy, when I was your age...")

I like having no radio buttons selected in a Web application, just to
force an action when I want that.

                                         -- hs 

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