If there are only a few items, yes - checkboxes are great for short lists. But if it is a long list, no - a huge pile of checkboxes is awful. So if your list contains more than a dozen items, just stick with the multi-select.
And you are right to just use the built-in UX the browser offers. Flawed it may be, but it is standard. Don't confuse your desktop users by inventing something new. They know their own browser.
Thanks! That reminds me I did bring up the thing about long lists and he said that's even more reason to use checkboxes since the multi-select has such a tiny scroll window it makes it hard to scroll through to find what you need when there are a bunch of options.
Why is a multi-select better for a large selection than a series of checkboxes? iirc, multi-selects suffer from the problem that if you accidentally mis-click on one entry, it'll unselect every other previously-selected entry, no?
Comments
If there are only a few items, yes - checkboxes are great for short lists. But if it is a long list, no - a huge pile of checkboxes is awful. So if your list contains more than a dozen items, just stick with the multi-select.
And you are right to just use the built-in UX the browser offers. Flawed it may be, but it is standard. Don't confuse your desktop users by inventing something new. They know their own browser.
Thanks! That reminds me I did bring up the thing about long lists and he said that's even more reason to use checkboxes since the multi-select has such a tiny scroll window it makes it hard to scroll through to find what you need when there are a bunch of options.
I'd change the styling on it to have a larger height if the scrollable area is the concern.
Oh right that makes sense thank you!
Why is a multi-select better for a large selection than a series of checkboxes? iirc, multi-selects suffer from the problem that if you accidentally mis-click on one entry, it'll unselect every other previously-selected entry, no?
You can click and drag to select a bunch of options at once, just like you click and drag to select files in your file manager.
Because if it is a large list, you give up massive amounts of screen real estate to a gigantor pile of checkboxes.