Difference between revisions of "Projects/Usability/HIG/Radio Buttons"

Revision as of 17:37, 1 August 2008

Radio buttons offer the user a choice of two or more mutually exclusive options. Try to limit the number of radio buttons and radio button groups in a dialog. Offering a high number of radio buttons consumes screen space and adds to visual clutter. At the same time, showing all available options at once is an advantage if users are likely not to know possible alternatives.

Guidelines

• Use radio buttons for 2 to 3 mutually exclusive options. If there are more than three options, use a combo box or list instead.
• Use radio buttons if the user should see the choices without further interaction.
• Provide a descriptive label above or left to a group of radio buttons in sentence style capitalization.
• Use title style capitalization the radio button options.
• Align groups of radio buttons vertically rather than horizontally, as this makes them easier to scan visually. Use horizontal or rectangular alignments only if they greatly improve the layout of the window.
• Radio buttons are not dynamic; their content or labels should not change depending on the context.
• If toggling a radio button affects the enabled state of other controls, place the controls that it affects next to the radio button or below and indented.

• Don't initiate an action when the user clicks a radio button.