When to Use Drop Down Boxes

When you’re building your survey, you have the option of choosing buttons or drop down boxes. Buttons are the preferred choice, but many people choose drop down boxes because they save space, especially in longer surveys. But not every question deserves a drop down box. They are best for very specific types of questions, and overuse of these drop down boxes can cause problems with your survey.

Drop down boxes are especially useful when you have a considerably long list, and fitting all of it on screen would be tiresome, if not impossible. For example, when you want the respondent to enter in their state or country, putting it in a bulleted lists makes little sense, while within the drop down box the individual can quickly go to their answer and move on.

Unfortunately, that is one of the only times that it makes sense to use drop down boxes. Other times you will need to find a different solution, especially when the question matches any of the qualities below: Few Answers – Never do a dropdown box when there are few answers. Little Typing – Never do a drop down box when typing the answer is easier (ie, numbers).

Multiple Choices – Never do drop down boxes when the individual may need to select more than one answer. You should also make sure that the questions are as user friendly as possible. That means that you should only use them when the respondent will not need to scroll back and forth.

You don’t them to have to go down an entire list first before scrolling back up to select their answers. You should also make sure that answers can all fit on one line, so that they are easy to select, and you should avoid having a pre-selected answer because this could cause respondents to forget to answer the question and move on.

Drop down boxes have their place, but they’re not the best question type. Placing them too often in the survey can also be irritating to respondents. The best way to use them is when respondents can and will quickly and easily go to their answer and move on, rather than stay on the question for several minutes. Use them when it makes sense to do so, and choose a different question format for all other question types.