Comments on: Selects, JavaScript, and Usability: Please help.

By: Form Design Blunders and Faux Pas on the Web - Monday By Noon

Form Design Blunders and Faux Pas on the Web - Monday By Noon — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:26:30 +0000

[...] Something I continue to run into time after time is the classic case of recursive selects. I will despise this implementation until the end of time. I can understand that it may be a way to de-clutter the UI a bit, but at a [...]

By: Jonathan Christopher

Jonathan Christopher — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:36:51 +0000

@Aaron Gustafson: Thanks for the link! I’ll be sure to take a look at the write-up.

By: Aaron Gustafson

Aaron Gustafson — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:57:56 +0000

I'm sure I'd cringe at the code if I looked at it now, but I built a degradable related SELECTs from an OPTGROUP-organized SELECT a few years back and then wrote about it for Digital Web.

By: Jonathan Christopher

Jonathan Christopher — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:15:14 +0000

Thanks to everyone pointing out some resources I hadn’t come across before! There are obviously people frustrated with this very issue and put some serious thought into a proper alternative. I apologize for the delay in my response, but I’m really excited to see what opinions and resources have been posted!

By: Limitless

Limitless — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:07:06 +0000

I agree too with Andy and Matthew!, I’ve seen that before. Good work ;)

By: Matthew Babbs

Matthew Babbs — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:04:00 +0000

I agree with Andy, Chris Heilmann's method is the best choice available at the moment. Even with quite a large number of options, it's reasonably usable without JS.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:44:52 +0000

My favorite way to do this is to use the method described here:
http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=411

It only works for 2 levels of options but there’s also a nested list solution for unlimited levels.

By: Medden

Medden — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:42:31 +0000

The download method used in your examples doesn’t over bother me, although there is no excuse for it not working with javascript disabled.
To make it accessible without js. I’d hide the second select box, and add a (GO) button to take you to a page of results for the product family you choose.

This kind of multi select box method is very useful for reducing large amounts of data a visitor gets to see, or limiting choices to predefined paths.

By: trovster

trovster — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:27:06 +0000

Hey, this is something I've just done for a site, where they wanted such functionality. Here's an example of a double-select with the JavaScript I'm using, hopefully it can be useful to someone!