Hello list :) A client of mine suggested an auto-complete field for a certain feature. He also said the following: if a user is too lazy to type (which might be true, as power users are the ones who use the keyboard - or is it?) we should also provide a classic drop-down box with all the available options.
Now, my question relates to the usefulness of auto-completes. Don't you think that the users know that if they click a drop-down box, they can type in the first letter of what they are looking for and the browser would select the first option that starts with that letter for them? I'm testing this on every browser I've got. I'm on Windows (sadly) and it works on IE6 IE7, Firefox 3b2, Firefox 2, Opera 9 and Safari. You can actually type more than one letter, and the browser will remember your entire word. This happens in all listed browsers but IE6. This is actually a bit weird, and targeted at power users for sure, because if you let more than, say, half a second between key strokes, the word resets and the dropdown jumps tothe letter you are pressing. So, first question: were you aware of this? Second question: are normal internet users aware of the first letter option? As a first insight, earlier I asked my not so tech-savvy life partner, and she didn't know of either. (vv should really be kerned :) If everyone would know about this feature, I really think that auto-completes would be less useful in some cases (because they're js and such). Thanks! -- http://nomorestories.com/ ________________________________________________________________ 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
