If you're going to segment out the most popular options to the top of the
list, it's a really good idea to also include the same ones you've segmented
in the rest of the list - so they appear twice.  If someone misses them at
the top by following the alphabetical list down, you'll want them to find
it.

And I also agree - defaults in a selection is generally not good when you
want to make sure that someone has looked and verified, even if the option
is obvious.

Tim



-----Original Message-----
From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paola Kathuria
Sent: Thursday, 31 May 2007 9:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: dropdown selections: default values or no?

Anastasia wrote:
> I have a client with a web app full of long forms. Many of the 
> selection boxes have been set to no default as the client wants the 
> user to 'consciously' select a value. However it is also clear that in 
> most of these cases there is an obvious default value that gets 
> selected 80% of the time (80/20 rule).
> 
> Any opinions/thoughts on this? I always opt in favor of efficiency, 
> but in this case the client wants to go the other direction....

I think your client's right. Otherwise, you can never be sure that the user
has seen the selection box and that no-action = an implicit selection.

However, put the popular choices at the top of the list and separate it from
the rest with a line to save scrolling.

E.g., if it were a country list:

  <option value="">== Select country ==</option>
  <option value="GB">United Kingdom</option>
  <option value="US">United States</option>
  <option value="">-----------------------------</option>
  <option value="AL">Albania</option>
  <option value="AD">Andorra</option>
  <option value="AI">Anguilla</option>
  <option value="AR">Argentina</option>
  <option value="AM">Armenia</option>

etc.


Paola
--
http://www.paolability.com/

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