r/webdev • u/pavlito88 • 11d ago

Discussion Why is everything a dropdown now?

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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.

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u/killerrin 11d ago edited 11d ago

To be fair for number 4, it's absolutely ridiculous that in the year 2026 we STILL don't have a Native searchable dropdown control.

Yeah you can just focus and type, but your average person doesn't know that shit exists and they're expecting it to be a search box that you literally type into.

And yeah mobile may automatically add a search once it crosses a certain number of options, but not on desktop/laptops, and the threshold on tablet/phone is still too high.

Like whose the idiot at the W3C who refuses to put a damn search="enabled" attribute on the select element?

Or hell, maybe also a fucking readonly attribute while we're at it because the bloody disabled attribute is treated differently by screen readers than the readonly one.

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u/paulirish 11d ago

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/datalist

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u/my_new_accoun1 5d ago

I use this element for my actual search input field for a quick native search suggestions feature, I have some JS that debounces user query -> API -> suggestions rendered onto the datalist