I'm with Todd: "For radio buttons I would have one pre-selected only when I understand that most visitors select that choice; that becomes a kind of usability accommodation."
I'd go a step further to suggest that this can be a usability issue on the delivery side, too, depending on your specific use. Leaving choices unselected by default helps assure that all users have actually selected an option in all cases, rather than overlooking and accepting a default option that may lead you to misinterpret whatever data you're gathering. As Todd suggests, it also depends whether you want people to choose or whether you want to want to lead them. I may not be a typical user, but I immediately discredit any app that appears to give me a choice but pushes me -- however gently -- in one direction. Many online polls, for example, have such simplistic choices as to be completely trivial and irrelevant. I won't waste my time with them, and I can spot them in microseconds. So the next question may be (depending on specifics of intent), how important is credibility? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=26405 ________________________________________________________________ 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
