What is the best way to design an interface so that very long drop down values that get trucated due to size limits do not create a very bad user experience. My question is for web applications.
Could you please send your suggestions.
Thanks.
+1
A:
You can use a another window (div?) with list/grid with paging instead of dropdown. Its very intuitive for general users.
TcKs
2008-09-25 08:36:42
I think using another window is a horrible user experience for users. I personally wouldn't do it that way.
Mitch Wheat
2008-09-25 08:37:58
What is a "general user"? I ge the impression that neither Mitch nor me belong to that group.
innaM
2008-09-25 08:41:35
+2
A:
One option is to use 'type-ahead' with postback (AJAX) to reduce the size of the list.
Mitch Wheat
2008-09-25 08:37:12
+1
A:
Well, what I have done in such a case is:
- Using autocomplete (so that the user can start typing and get at the intended option faster).
- Have the dropdown of a fixed length like 30 chars. Now, if the value of the drop down is longer I just truncate it to 25 with a '...' at the end. A hover on this value will make the full text appear as a 'title' or similar.
Adhip Gupta
2008-09-25 08:42:14
A:
have a tooltip for each item in the dropdown list so when a user hovers his mouse pointer to an item, he'll still be able to see the full description of the item.
or have your dropdown width auto-resize to the longest description in the list.
Leon Tayson
2008-09-25 08:57:09