Thursday, May 28, 2015

website design - Buttons instead of radio buttons or a dropdown


In a recent project of ours I am tasked with creating an interface that solves the same problem as radio buttons or a dropdown menu would, but using buttons instead.


It approximately looks like this:



mockup


download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups


I wonder what you think the implications this has over using dropdowns and radio buttons and why it is good or bad or neither. Please back your answer with evidence or personal experience rather than taste.



Answer



This kind of UI elements exists and is used in many applications even if differently.


Facebook events


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Google calendar


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If well designed they are even more affordant than the usual radio buttons.



enter image description here


The thing is, because of this affordance they seem "auto selected" so there is no need of a validation like in your example. Therefore I would say radio buttons and drop-down are better here because they need a validation to be used (or at least it is expected to work this way).


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