[thelist] Select Menus - Are they usefull?

[Mark Howells]

>> New visitors, or
>> people who are not au fait with computers and the internet, may not see a
>> select box as a menu.
>>
>> DHTML menus may be a better option
>
> Select menus are in applications other than web browsers ... I'd say
> that a select box is _more_ likely to be recognized as something that
> contains many links than a link that activates a DHTML menu ...
> especially if the DHTML link isn't underlined as many aren't.

If the design is correctly implemented then there should be no problem with
either, but a menu that uses a "common" layout may be more apparent than a
select box with ----------- as the default option (which I've seen on many
occasions). I was pointing out that many users are new to computers and the
internet and, while they have a responsibility to learn how to browse web
pages, a select box may be less obvious to them as it isn't a common form of
navigation. DHTML menus, on the other hand, tend to have a list of
"top-level" menu options which often react without the user having to click
on them.

Regards
Mark Howells
<http://www.mark.ac/evl/>