
Stop Using ‘Drop-Down’ - diablo1
https://adrianroselli.com/2020/03/stop-using-drop-down.html
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SavageBeast
Thing is my customer, Bob From Marketing, wants a new feature. He knows "Text
Input","Drop Down","Form","Button", "Checkbox" as terms to communicate his
feature to me. He knows this because he used to code some Visual Basic on the
side when he was "still a programmer" all those years ago.

Now in reality, I don't take any thing Bob tells me literally as directions. I
treat it more as a description of Bobs problem. I then forget everything he
told me he wanted and build the tool necessary to do the job he's described.

"drop-down" works just fine thank you. It's adequately descriptive to support
its most common application - which is communicating with non-technical
people.

But what about communicating with a technical person? Well, they're going to
do what they want to/the sensible thing anyhow no matter what I call it.

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happytoexplain
This is nuts. Please don't encourage people to stop using such a tried-and-
tested, well understood, descriptive word. Talking about UI/UX is hard enough
without taking that away. What the author is actually criticizing is a lack of
detail regarding UX and implementation in feature descriptions.

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nkrisc
I use the word "dropdown" because it's the word that the non-technical people
I work with use. They're not thinking in terms of HTML elements. If they ask
me for a "dropdown" and I ask them if they "mean a <select> or a <datalist>?"
they're going to think I'm just a pompous asshole.

I click it and it drops down. Ergo "dropdown." For better or worse, that's
what it's called now.

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JohnFen
> They're not thinking in terms of HTML elements.

That makes sense, as the term originated with UI development that predates
HTML. It's a fairly precise term (although there are variations on dropdown
styles, they're all unambiguously dropdowns).

There's nothing wrong (and a lot right) with using the term if you're not
talking specifically (or knowledgeable) about web interfaces. Even when used
in relation to web interfaces, the meaning remains clear, even if the
technical HTML terms differ.

~~~
nkrisc
> That makes sense, as the term originated with UI development that predates
> HTML.

Yes, but this post is focused on HTML which is why I phrased it in terms of
HTML. The term "dropdown" is often used to describe a desired out come (a
method of interaction in order to make a selection) and is often meant
independently of the actual implementation, as browser, for example, will
implement the control differently based on platform.

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butlertronica
I have no idea what this is about - would it really be such a stretch to add
examples of the controls he is on about?

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ASalazarMX
The silliness of this article's premise is that we still need a bestiary of
drop-downs. As if the process wasn't complex enough.

Just call it a drop-down and iterate the design.

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libraryatnight
I've never been confused by "drop-down" I was confused by this post, though.

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culopatin
Does anyone else see a trend in recent times of posts that start with “Its
time to start X/ Stop using X” instead of saying “I think there is some work
to be done about X” or “IMO Y is better than X”.

Then turns out you read the thing and they have nothing to sustain that title.

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OJFord
People probably _did_ call it 'a select', until non-technical users called it
'a drop-down' (because that's what it does, without knowing what the code
looks like, why would you call it 'select'?) and the term came to dominate.

I don't think it's confusing, if anything it's used precisely so we aren't
confused... like by the myriad options presented in this post when all we
really meant was 'any old thing that drops down and a user will call a drop-
down'.

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wilg
Well this seems like something that isn't worth worrying about.

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Avery3R
This post reads like it was written by a web developer that doesn't realize UI
development happens on any other platform.

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cameronfraser
Dropdown is a perfectly fine term to use. Developers should be able to infer
what is actually meant by additional requirements.

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janci
For me, select box is a control with predefined list of options that can be
shown and hidden in window-blinds style. Combo box is the same, but new entry
can be added by directly typing in the box. They look the same but have
different behavior. Dropdown is any of those and thus defines only the visual
aspect, not the behavior.

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darkstar999
Stop using "stop using" blog posts.

~~~
acheron
"Stop using" blog posts considered harmful.

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byteknight
No

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timw4mail
`Drop-down` is imprecise, especially considering the difference between a
navigation menu that drops down, compared with a a list of pre-set options.

There might be a few too many examples on this page, though.

