[Sigia-l] check boxes versus multi-select lists

[T. Karsjens]

I completely disagree.

Your users are *all* of your context.  If you have access to them, of
course.

There is *no* best solution, except what the users want.  If they want a
list of 50 check boxes, then guess what the best solution is.  If they want
multiple multi-select boxes where the next choices are delimited by their
previous choices, then that is the best solution.  

You cannot carry around a bag of tricks that you pull the same solution out
of on different projects.  You have to do what works, and if you have access
to the actual users of the system, then the entire context of that system is
based on the interaction you have with those users.

Now the challenge is, and this is where a lot of us fail, is getting those
users to sit in a room and come to an agreement.  Another challenge is
picking up on how a user actually uses the system, versus what they are
saying.

The majority of my work in the last four years has been going in after
"creative professionals" and cleaning up the messes that they have left
behind after thinking that they knew what is best.

The major caveat to this is if you do not have access to the users, to get
real time, quality feedback, you *do* have to make assumptions as to what is
best.  Having the experience from working with real users makes this a lot
easier, but you can also pull valuable information from others.

--timk

-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf
Of Austin Govella
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 4:00 PM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] check boxes versus multi-select lists

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 T. Karsjens wrote:
> However, if your audience is "canned", ask them.  You may be surprised by
> the answer.  Every application where I have had a canned audience, they
all
> prefer the multi-select versus the large list of check boxes.

It's still important to recognise that what your audience may say they
prefer may not be the choice that helps them work better, faster, more
efficiently, or more pleasingly.

Generally, design works best when it creates the *best* solution for a
given context. Users are *part* of the context, not all of it.

--
Austin Govella
Grafofini: the web team
http://www.grafofini.com
austin at grafofini.com
------------
When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
*Plain text, please; NO Attachments

Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
________________________________________
Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l