Re: Multiple Select Widget

On Oct 16, 2009, at 1:21pm, Ryan wrote:

> Wondering what the best practice is for a multiple selection  
> situation on a
> web page outside of using a modifying keyboard key (Control or  
> Command) with a
> html list control. Multiple checkboxes work until you have a long  
> list of
> options.

(1) many times such tasks are better supported with the "Add/Remove"  
idiom (two side-by-side lists, with arrows to move each lists'  
selection to the other list)*.  Add/Remove can sometimes be  
advantageous because the real selection is more persistent and less  
fragile than typical widget selections-- for example, in multiselect  
List Boxes, a single accidental click can clobber a carefully  
assembled multiple selection.

* http://developers.sun.com/docs/web-app-guidelines/uispec4_1/08-complex.html#8.2


(2) many times such tasks are better supported with a "Shopping Cart"  
idiom (pick items from a list and put them into a cart).  Shopping  
Carts similarly have the advantage of a relatively persistent selection.

Shopping Carts work well when your lists are so large as to require  
other navigational machinery such as Browsing, Search, Filters,  
Sorting, etc. for the user to easily and successfully find the items s/ 
he needs to select.


Some tasks are faster and more reliably done by selecting-all (or  
selecting many) and then selectively REMOVING items from the  
selection.  Consider that.
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