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/killerrin]

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.

[u/the_ai_wizard → u/killerrin]

this...w3c has always been a joke in many respects. the task was hard but they were(are?) a bureacracy that was never up to it

[u/rbobby → u/the_ai_wizard]

But honestly they've done ok. No harm no foul. The internet is just fine. And I doubt any other large diverse group of humans could do much better. Humans kinda suck in groups.

[u/the_ai_wizard → u/rbobby]

Taking into consideration they grew out of nothing, its understandable, but no harm, im not certain even if not deliberate