Adventures In Interface Design

[woodwardiocom]

"Can you make that checkbox required?"

"You mean, require the user check it before they can continue?"

"No, require them to check it or not check it."

"..."

Comments

[bluegargantua]

"Yeah, I figured it was required so I set it up that way. It's good to go."

later
Tom

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

I ::smooch:: this comment

[ceo]

"...as opposed to what other option?"

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a mangled version of:

* require the user to make an affirmative selection either way
* give them a visual confirmation of their current selection
* allow them to change their minds before comitting

Did you end up with a couple of initially unset radio buttons instead of the checkbox?

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

When they ask that, I do indeed usually end up giving them Y/N radio buttons.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

ever do any self-check lane GUIs?

This

[drwex]

90% of checkboxes in UIs should be replaced with Y/N radiobuttons because that's what the checkbox is actually being used for and it's nearly impossible to separate "I meant to say no by leaving it blank" from "I had no idea I was supposed to make a choice here so I left it blank without thinking about it."

[starphire.livejournal.com]

Hmm...first thought - was it a project manager, upper management, or a marketing genius?

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

In-house users.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

"Sure... That'll be an extra $50"
Kidding aside, good call on the Yes/No radio button :)

[ectropy.livejournal.com]

Well, you *can*. You just need to have one of the options be "None of the above", and require that at least one of the checkboxes be selected.

But as everyone else pointed out, it's probably better to figure out what they really want, then make that happen.

[guenpanther.livejournal.com]

You could do a radio button choice of yes | no, and when they navigate to the page have it default to no choice. Have the Save button disabled until it's not null.