Dropdown List Submenus
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- 5timuli
Help me out here, this should be a simple 'yes' or (more likely) 'fuck no'.
I'm designing a simple search for a law website with two dropdowns and a text field. One of the dropdowns has about 40 items in the list (11 main categories, each with sub categories of between 2 and 13). I set it up as a scrolling, indented list, but the client thinks it's too long and want rollover sub-menus like they do in their main nav. I know this isn't possible with system-native dropdowns but is there a way to do this with custom code?
Does that make sense?
- vaxorcist0
Do you mean something like:
http://playground.emanuelblagoni…
(click on Projects)
+ the text field..
http://www.emanuelblagonic.com/2…or possibly some jQuery customisation....
NOTE: I think situations like this arise when hard decisions haven't been made and oddball UI has to be kludged onto a mediocre information architecture... if the IA is reworked, the UI shouldn't be so complex....
- 5timuli0
'Fraid not, vaxorcist. I mean as a list dropdown in a web form: choosing one item from the list to be used as search criteria. The client wants submenus as some of the options are rarely used, but they still want them in.
This is what happens when someone makes the decision not to develop wireframes prior to prototyping and when the client decides to make major decisions a few days before build is due to start.
:/
- vaxorcist0
Looking at this again, I think your screenshot idea above is FAR better than the client's idea, due to context. Why? He thinks about this all the time, so the sub-categories are obvious to him, but the customers may find themselves fishing around, clicking the categories, getting to the wrong sub-category, etc... whereas your scrolling list may be long, but it's easier to use for somebody who is not entirely familiar with the companies products and internal sub-categorisation. This is an example of the client assuming that the customer thinks the same way he thinks and knows the same stuff he knows.... I think the scrollbar is a minimal problem in comparison to confused customers...
- vaxorcist0
BattleAxe seems to have an option that may work, but I do think it depends on customers knowing what is likely to be in which sub-category... Ideally you could do both your one-long-list and the two-list ideas, then user test them, but even if you do one, be prepared to do the other, as it sounds like this project will have some re-doing in the future....
- sublocked0
don't do the submenus. vaxorcist's first post has the best idea on the subject.
your design is fine. submenus are excise and unecessary for the goals the users of this site are looking to accomplish.