More and more I’m noticing a new trend in web-based forms.

The days of the <select> tag are numbered. The most recent example is GMail’s “More actions” drop-down.

It’s gone from this

to this

I completely understand why. Unavailable CSS styling and <select> bugs in IE have always been frustrating, but the real motivation to move away from the tag has been its lack of features.

With a JavaScript/DHTML solution you can simply do so much more. In December 2004 when Google released “ Google Suggest” (which is an auto-complete-like drop-down of the search field) many developers started to consider abandoning <select> tags. Add to that the flexibility of cross-browser styling, adding images to drop-downs and dramatic visual effects… The end is near.

However, I’m not suggesting the end of the tag’s use. Using a <select> tag gives the browser the responsibility to make the form accessible to vision and mobility-impaired people which is often overlooked in a small project or web-based application.

We’ve all seen web applications that require the user to do a repetitive task. Unfortunately, programmers often ignore how unnatural it is to go through a multitude of form fields, how unclean the design looks, and how hard-coding the number of elements one can enter at a single time limits the use of your application. Stick with keeping it simple, and keeping it simple means keeping things clean and intuitive. (more…)