When should I use the radio buttons?

Question

IMHO Radio buttons should resign. ComboBox (Drop-Down list mode) should always be preferred.
The drop-down list requires minimal screen space, and you can add / remove items programmatically.
No need to resize (hard) or disable irrelevant options (ugly).

Can you think of a situation where the radio button is still useful?

Answer 1

Interfaces on which there is not much on the screen, for example pages of the wizard or 10-foot user interfaces (for example, Media Center).

In addition, it’s easier to use a radio button for touch interfaces than for navigating a drop-down list.

But I agree that the radio buttons occupy a potentially valuable screen real estate - so I will only use them if there is a very limited number of options.

Answer 2

Use the radio buttons:

• When you need to use a standard visual representation
• When you need visually present selection groups as groups
• When you need to present all selections together (in terms of accessibility)

Generally, as recommended by Jacob Nielsen, you should prefer to use radio buttons for combo boxes, which are much less accessible for clear definition.

Answer 3

When there are a limited number of options, switches are usually preferred. Things like choosing your gender, where in the foreseeable future there will be only two options, I really prefer the radio buttons, as you quickly see that you have options.

In most other cases, I agree, drop-down lists are preferable.

Answer 4

From rant :

Drop-down windows should be used when the parameters in the drop-down list follow a sequential pattern of some type - that is, dates, months, plug-in names, counters, logical values, type of phone number (mobile / home / work), etc.

In those cases when they should not be used, when each parameter is not suitable for the sequence, or the user cannot “guess” which option to choose , i.e. "states", which usually require the user to select a drop-down list and read through each parameter before they can determine what to put.

(Meaning: the radio in this case is more appropriate)

If the drop-down menu contains options that are not obvious what they will be, every time someone lands on this page, they may need to select a drop-down list to check the available options and make sure that they are entitled to one.

Answer 5

Radio buttons have two main advantages over lists:

• Theyre faster for the user by selecting one click and not two. A typical click takes 1.2 to 2.4 seconds. Translate this into equivalent processor cycles, and you see that a little work on optimizing the user interface costs a lot of work on optimizing the code.

• They provide better self-documentation of the control without pressing anything. Viewing all options, not just the default, tells users more about what they see or configure. For example, the type “Answer Type: Right” is ambiguous when you see “Answer Type:” (o) Right - () On the left, “Better”. “Priority: high” has different consequences than the vision “Priority :() Critical - (o) High - () Medium - () Low

Both switches and combined fields show the user the current selection.

From the point of view of users, the only drawback of the switches is the screen real estate that they consume. Thus, switches are preferable to combo fields if the property is not better used for something else. This is done regardless of the number of options, although obviously, the more options you have, the more likely it is that you can make better use of the property.

The only other consideration is that if you have a large number of options (for example, 10 or more), the combined fields make it easier to read the current value, since the user does not need to visually look for a good part of the page / window to find it.

As for the work required to add options programmatically, my philosophy is that programmers should work, so users should not.

Disabling provides vital information to the user and should never be avoided because its “ugly”. Disabling is not equivalent to deleting. Disabling suggests something inaccessible may be available, and deletion suggests that it is never available. The fact that it is impossible to disable an item in a list from lists is another drawback of combo boxes above switches.

Answer 6

Radio buttons are faster and easier to use, since you can immediately see all the options without interaction, and you can choose your choice with one click. If the number of options is limited (say, 5 or less), it is better to choose radios.

If screen search for the five switches is a problem, the user interface probably needs a redesign.

Answer 7

In short, switches are very useful when several choices are available. What immediately comes to my mind: Yes / No questions or questions in the polls, for example, varies from "Strictly agree to a strong disagreement." Since all options are laid out on the screen (most likely horizontally), this is a kind of scale on which the user can provide an answer. I don't think it will look just as good with a combo box

Answer 8

Use the switches when

• You have a short list of options.

• Mutual exclusive options

• You must let the user see all the choices all the time.

Answer 9

Radio buttons are a great way to get one option from the user.

Thus, you create a report manager for your users, which allows them to see sales this year, last year, this month or last month.

Place them at the top of your manager so that the user selects only one. Then it fills out drop-down lists, etc. For additional filtering

Answer 10

You should use them when:

• The user expects them to be there (example: license dialogs with agreement / reduction, default reduction. This is the most common layout for this situation and forcing the user to adapt to another solution that does the same as the one he is used to, should avoid. * )
• You want to immediately provide the user with all the options available to him. The drop-down list requires that it be clicked first, and the list may span other elements of the GUI. Radio buttons give a better overview.

From a programmers point of view, I really prefer the combo box :-)

* Yes, I mean that we are stuck with this, whether other solutions are better or not ...

Answer 11

The “gender” example simply proves my point.
After the product has been shipped, the customer / users require that they make a third choice: “Leave without indication”.

Although the switch allows you to easily see the available options, the drop-down list allows you to easily see what is selected. In most cases, users simply look at the settings, changes occur less frequently.