When to Use Drop-down Lists and When Not To
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Wed, Jan 21, 2009
Most survey software, including Vovici v4, lets you determine whether to show a single-select choice list as radio buttons or a drop-down list:
Which format to use is not simply a matter of personal preference. The drop-down list has strengths and weaknesses.
- It's great for letting a user quickly pick from a long list of known choices, such as lists of countries, Canadian provinces, and U.S. states and territories.
- Even casual users will often use the keyboard effectively with drop-down lists: clicking M three times, for instance, to rapidly select "Massachusetts" (third M after "Maine" and "Maryland" in the illustration).
- Another best practice for using drop-downs is to make sure that no choice is made the default. I've often seen State lists where "Alabama" was selected as the answer; I'm sure authors of such surveys are surprised to find out many of their customers "live" in Alabama!
- It is best to make the default choice an instruction, such as "(Click here to choose)".
Since the drop-down box only displays a portion of a long list at a time, the drop-down is a poor approach to use when a long choice list has to be read to be understood. For instance, a long list of job titles or industries doesn't belong in a drop-down list; the respondent needs to carefully review the list to determine the most appropriate choice, since such lists vary widely from industry to industry and from survey author to survey author.
Sometimes the alternative to a drop-down list is not radio buttons but a textbox. I extolled MR Heretic's blog yesterday; on the subject of drop-downs, MR Heretic writes:
Generally speaking, drop down menus become tedious for respondents when there are too many (more than 10?) items to choose from. Most of the time you can fix this problem with a text input box and some validation logic.
When asking for a year, for instance (see How to Ask Respondents Their Age), it is simple to validate that the answer to the text box is within the specified numeric range.
As a survey author, you have a choice on how to prompt respondents for answers. Choose wisely, and you will make it easier for your respondents to choose accurately.