Lab-United - Online-Research

States as drop-down menu

With drop-down menus one can save a lot of space and kinda pretend to have a short survey. However, one should still be careful applying drop-down menus and consider that a user needs more time to choose the appropriate answer in a drop-down menu than in choosing the right radio button or a check box. In some cases drop-down menus are, on the other hand, the only choice, especially when the list of possible answers to choose from is rather long. From cognitive psychology we know that the human being is able to comprehend up to six elements at the same time, hence drop-down menus should only be used with more than 7 possible answers.

This is what it could look like:
States as drop-down menu (in GERMAN)

In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?

    HTML-Source
<p>In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?<br> <select size="1" name="state"> <option value="0"> Bitte auswählen</option> <option value="1"> Burgenland</option> <option value="2"> Kärnten</option> <option value="3"> Niederösterreich</option> <option value="4"> Salzburg</option> <option value="5"> Steiermark</option> <option value="6"> Tirol</option> <option value="7"> Vorarlberg</option> <option value="8"> Wien</option> <option value="9"> kein Wohnsitz in Österreich</option> </select>



States with radio buttons

Displaying the states with radio buttons is probably one of the best alternatives. By applying "blind" tables it is possible to arrange all available answers in a way that allows direct capture of all at one glance. That is why we present here two different versions: a simple list and the display with a table. The table has 420 pixels in its widths so that it also looks the same on the smaller 14' monitors.

Simple list

In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?
Burgenland
Kärnten
Niederösterreich
Salzburg
Steiermark
Tirol
Vorarlberg
Wien
Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich

    HTML-Source
<p>In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="1"> Burgenland<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="2"> Kärnten<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="3"> Nieder¨sterreich<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="4"> Salzburg<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="5"> Steiermark<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="6"> Tirol<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="7"> Vorarlberg<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="8"> Wien<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="9"> Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich

List with "blind" table
In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?

Burgenland
Kärnten
Niederösterreich
Salzburg
Steiermark
Tirol
Vorarlberg
Wien
Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich

    HTML-Source
<p>In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?<br> <table width="420" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr> <td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="radio" name="state" value="1"> Burgenland<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="2"> Kärnten<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="3"> Niederösterreich<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="4"> Salzburg<br> </td><td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="radio" name="state" value="5"> Steiermark<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="6"> Tirol<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="7"> Vorarlberg<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="8"> Wien<br> <input type="radio" name="state" value="9"> Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich </td></tr></table>

States with checkboxes

The same applies here as it already has with radio buttons. The only difference is that checkboxes allow multiple answers.

Simple list

In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?
Burgenland
Kärnten
Niederösterreich
Salzburg
Steiermark
Tirol
Vorarlberg
Wien
Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich

    HTML-Source
<p>In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="1"> Burgenland<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="2"> Kärnten<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="3"> Nieder¨sterreich<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="4"> Salzburg<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="5"> Steiermark<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="6"> Tirol<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="7"> Vorarlberg<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="8"> Wien<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="9"> Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich

List with checkboxes using a "blind" table
In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?

Burgenland
Kärnten
Niederösterreich
Salzburg
Steiermark
Tirol
Vorarlberg
Wien
Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich

    HTML-Source
<p>In welchem Bundesland wohnen Sie?<br> <table width="420" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr> <td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="1"> Burgenland<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="2"> Kärnten<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="3"> Niederösterreich<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="4"> Salzburg<br> </td><td width="220" valign="top"> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="5"> Steiermark<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="6"> Tirol<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="7"> Vorarlberg<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="8"> Wien<br> <input type="checkbox" name="state" value="9"> Kein Wohnsitz in Österreich </td></tr></table>

	© 2002-2004 by Anja Berger & Mirko Wendland; All rights reserved.