savache27
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Criteria selection: drop downs VS. radio buttons
Im beginning to develop an application in VS where a department head would first have to log onto the system. Once they're logged in, a new screen would appear that would allow them to make certain selections that would filter the students that would appear. The selections are as follows:
a. Semester: _ Both _ Fall 2007 _ Spring 2008 (this will change in the future)
b. Type of Applicant: _ All _ Entering Freshmen _ Transfer _ Readmit _ Graduate Student _ Special Admit _ Other Undergraduate
c. Admit Status: _ All _ Admitted _ Missing Requirements _ Wait List _ Withdrew Application _ Referred/Not Referrable
d. Enrollment Status: _ Both _ Enrolled _ Not Enrolled
e. Major: _ All Majors in Area _ (Major1) _ (Major2) (This would be all the majors in the department's area)
f. Contacted?: _ Both _ Yes _ No
Once they submit their selections, an SQL query would run that would pull from only their area (Say the College of Education for that particular dept head) based on the selections they made. Then a new screen would appear with the students who met the criteria and it would basically be a grid that would show student name, address, e-mail address, phone number, and the date of last contact.
My question is regarding the criteria: would it be better to use drop downs for them to select from, or radio buttons? Or if anyone has a better suggestion I would appreciate that as well.
a. Semester: _ Both _ Fall 2007 _ Spring 2008 (this will change in the future)
b. Type of Applicant: _ All _ Entering Freshmen _ Transfer _ Readmit _ Graduate Student _ Special Admit _ Other Undergraduate
c. Admit Status: _ All _ Admitted _ Missing Requirements _ Wait List _ Withdrew Application _ Referred/Not Referrable
d. Enrollment Status: _ Both _ Enrolled _ Not Enrolled
e. Major: _ All Majors in Area _ (Major1) _ (Major2) (This would be all the majors in the department's area)
f. Contacted?: _ Both _ Yes _ No
Once they submit their selections, an SQL query would run that would pull from only their area (Say the College of Education for that particular dept head) based on the selections they made. Then a new screen would appear with the students who met the criteria and it would basically be a grid that would show student name, address, e-mail address, phone number, and the date of last contact.
My question is regarding the criteria: would it be better to use drop downs for them to select from, or radio buttons? Or if anyone has a better suggestion I would appreciate that as well.
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I think in this case it's a matter of personal preference. Both formats allow you to select a single item from a group of items. I believe that using dropdownlists will prove better in the long run as they are more capable of dealing with additions/subtractions/cha
Another thing I thought of that you may need to consider is that what if a user wants to see results from multiple selections? For example, what if they want to see Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 students were contacted? (your business logic may vary as I am not familiar with the use of this) If I was using this system which essentially is another form of query builder, I would be annoyed if I couldn't get the results I wanted without making multiple queries and copying and pasting the results somewhere else. This may be something you should think about and if you do want to provide more fexibility like this, go with multiple select list boxes for options where you want to allow this functionality.
If you are a "real estate" monitor, then radio buttons take up much more space than drop downs do.
If you are a "see everything" person, then drop downs hide their options until you drop the list down.
Bob