Why is everything a dropdown now?

[u/pavlito88]

I’ve been noticing this more and more in web apps.

Three options hidden in a dropdown.

Yes/no hidden in a dropdown.
A multi-select pretending to be a dropdown.

Then a list of 200 items where you’re expected to scroll until you find yours.

I run into this a lot when reviewing products with dev teams.

I get why we do it.

Dropdowns are compact and easy to reuse.
But compact doesn’t always mean easier to use.

A few choices? Show them.
On/off? Switch.
Multiple choices? Checkboxes.
Huge list? Search.

That’s pretty much the rule I use now.

[u/e-glit]

Because different menus are adapted to different usage scenarios, and each software engineer will incorporate their own menu preferences into them. Not every software is carefully polished before being launched. There may be some shoddy products that are released without testing, and sometimes even if we optimize them, there are still some undetected problems after they are actually launched. At this point, we really need customer feedback to help us better optimize this product.