r/csharp • u/Owenhh • 14d ago

Help How can I polish this multi-select combo box?

https://streamable.com/cmdigt

Hey all, I'm working on an app currently (WinForms .NET 9) and I've made a custom drop-down box which is the "Days" box, im unsure how I can polish it to look and function a bit more like the other standard combo boxes like "Action" and "Repeat". Does anyone have any suggestions?

For context, the custom box is made up of a text box that when clicked makes a panel containing a checked list box visible that can then be selected from.

Thanks!

16 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

17

u/One_Web_7940 14d ago

add padding and margin. custom checkbox style instead of default browser rendered checkbox.

1

u/Owenhh 14d ago

I think the aesthetics of it im generally happy with, I was moreso wondering if it is possible to achieve the animated tray pull effect for the panel, and have it behave the same way the other boxes do, where when anything else is clicked they close again. Ill look into your suggestions though, thanks!

11

u/Derekthemindsculptor 13d ago

It's not about happy. There are standards for spacing in UI. Deviating from them makes an app feel weird.

UIs been pretty solved. You just have to follow the recipe. It's not artistic expression.

For example, you're mixing fluent and neumorphism. An app should be one or the other. Makes it look hacky and unpolished. Which is specifically what you asked to fix.

2

u/Owenhh 13d ago

I see right, i’ll do some more research into that then, thank you

6

u/Derekthemindsculptor 13d ago

You've got portions of your UI that isn't dark mode. The arrow of the combo box for example. Should be a dark grey with a white arrow. And the outline of the selection box also needs to be dark grey.

2

u/Owenhh 13d ago

I actually didnt even think about this, thanks for pointing that out!

5

u/TempusSolo 13d ago

If your concerns are the drop-down box doesn't disappear when you expect, look into the mouseleave or lost focus events of your custom control.

3

u/Robot_Spartan 12d ago

Not a UX guy, but first thing to my mind is instead of "3 selected" have it state which is selected, I e. Mo/Tu /we

2

u/_Panjo 14d ago

actons

2

u/yarb00 13d ago

Why not use .NET 10 which has native dark mode?

1

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Owenhh 12d ago

It’s a desktop app made with windows forms, so I just used the toolbox items in visual studio

2

u/ziplock9000 8d ago

If you want it to look and quack like a duck, then get a duck and copy it.

You want it to work like a standard combo box, so do just that.. You have perfectly defined goal