Usability issue - Multi Select list boxes
Two days back came across an usability issue with multi select list boxes. Here is the situation and issue.
In a certain web form there are 5 multi select list boxes with some values selected already. If the user accidentally clicks on one of the list boxes, by design, the clicked value alone gets selected, making the already-selected-values as un-selected. If the user didnt remember what values were selected earlier.. he will lose the information and this leads to inconvenience.
Anyway the user can still recover from the error, coz unless the user clicks the SAVE button the changed values will not be updated. But still that’s not helpful.
I came across a few ideas to fix this issue.
1. Provide a Restore link below or next the list box. So that if the user accidentally de-selects the previously selected values, the restore link will restore the seletion.
2. Provide a list with checkboxes (something like the windows controls).
The first one requires the users to guess “what this restore link will do? is that a rescue link or will that restore some other old values?”. And by usability norms, making the users to guess is bad. So the first one is ruled out.
The second seems meaningful, as it is familiar to everyone. Checkboxes does not change unless the users specifically clicks them. Using a scollable DIV, one can construct a list-box look alike quickly. This will help in most of the cases.
If you have any ideas/suggestions.. please post it.