I cannot understand why a state dropdown would display state abbreviations versus the actual name of the state. One would assume that the average user knows the abbreviation of their own state, but I used to assume that everyone knew that they could TAB through a form.
As for the maximum number of entries in a dropdown, I don't know that those rules necessarily apply now that everyone has a scrolly-mouse and one can also jump through the list by typing the first character of the desired selection. I worked on a project a couple of years ago in which the client insisted on having a dropdown populated with every employee in the company (1000+). They were also in the thick of sub-prime mortgage lending, so long-term thinking was not part of the company culture. I think type-ahead controls (or whatever they are called) will replace dropdowns in the foreseeable future and I won't shed a tear. "I don't know if "states" fall into the same consistency rule, but over time when I tab into a State field, I hit the letter N six or seven times (can't remember which off the top of my head), and whether they use NC or North Carolina, I almost always wind up on my state. That is, even if you use acronyms, use the order that's most consistent with what users expect. In my case, I expect to hit NY before NC, even though that's not truly alphabetical. Kind of odd how that turned out, but it's a weird sort of consistency that works." ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
