OT UI/UX question...
You know how dropdown menus t...
# cfml-generald
Dave Merrill
07/07/2023, 4:09 PMOT UI/UX question...
You know how dropdown menus typically show a down-pointing triangle until you click them, then the menu pops down?
We have a page that for space reasons pops the menu UP, not down.
Accordingly, they used an up-pointing triangle, which immediately struck me as odd.
Of course it's functional either way, but I'm a fan of the Principle Of Least Surprise, and this called attention to itself, to me at least.
Is that just me being weird, or is this not what users would expect?
b
Brian
07/07/2023, 7:01 PMIf the same control were in the middle of a long page, the direction of the pop might depend on how close you had scrolled to the bottom of the window. But the arrow direction wouldn't change because of this. I tend to agree with your perspective, although I would do a search to see if anyone had done any user research on it.
m
mithlond
07/07/2023, 7:58 PMI agree with least surprise, and Brian's point about scrolling shouldn't jump stuff about. There's a lot to be said for consistency as well.
To me, the downward arrow means "a list will appear when this box has focus" much more than it means "and it'll show up in a certain relative position".
💯 1
mithlond
07/07/2023, 8:02 PMThey're not wrong, in the sense that a downward pointing arrow is at odds with an upward appearing menu. I think the key is that that's not the only concern in communicating to the user via the design of the UI. Given all the factors that come into play, I'd say that the "inconsistency" of a down arrow for an up menu doesn't outweigh the "consistency" of a down arrow for all <select> like elements.
Do you want the user to be confused when they first see it and wonder if it's a dropdown, or have the menu go up instead of down and the user probably not even notice the "inconsistency", and almost certainly not care.