I was taught that the canonical answer is 12. I've never checked the
research on that, and it predates being able to navigate through the
list by first letters, but since I've seen a lot of users struggle
with navigating alphabetized lists, I try to stick with it
anyway...which means that whenever the client will let me, my "State"
selection lets the user type in the two-letter abbreviation (and the
display then shows the associated state) and so forth.
If you've got 30 elements in a drop down menu, you should seriously
consider why they're in drop downs. Yes, those standardize inputs, but
there are other ways of doing that in most cases. Put as much of the
burden as possible on the computer. Let it work for its input; none of
this lazing around accepting hand-outs!
kt
Katie Albers
Founder & Principal Consultant
FirstThought
User Experience Strategy & Project Management
310 356 7550
[email protected]
On Mar 10, 2009, at 10:57 PM, Albert Cornelissen wrote:
Hello everyone. This is my first post on IxDA. :) I've been
developing web applications for a few years now, and usability has
always been a priority, but I have only really started obessesing
about usability in the last year or so.
A colleague and I had a discussion about the maximum number of
elements that should be used in a (select) dropdown menu on a web
form.
He thinks that fifteen is the maximum. Me? I'm not quite sure what
to think. I know it's no fun to scroll throught almost a hundred
options in such a menu, but I can't seem to think of a better
alternative - especially if the list itself is ordered properly.
The web app that sparked this conversation currently uses a
combination of multiple select lists. They're quite unsightly.
Still, they aren't being used for all that many elements. I think 30
is the maximum.
I guess my question is this: what is the best practice for the
maximum number of items in a (select) dropdown?
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