Radio buttons (or as they are often called, "option buttons") in the early days of GUIs were used to select a choice from a set of items and early style guides noted that one of the radio buttons had to be chosen. The selection wasn't really "tacit" it was explicit. I noticed in the mid 1990s that there were radio button designs being used in online questionnaires (before surveymonkey and the like) where none of the radio buttons was chosen as early style guides had mandated. I think that I first saw it on a medical application where the physician had to check various items about a patient's health. The underlying metaphor had changed here from the physical radio set in old cars where you always had a station selected (unless your buttons broke) to that of a questionnaire where a person was required to make a choice, but you didn't want to preselect a choice to bias the task. So, if you are following the questionnaire model where you don't prefill a default radio button (to prevent bias), then putting an asterisk beside the field is reasonable. If you have radio buttons where there a default choice is prefilled, then the asterisk does not seem to make sense.
Chauncey On Nov 13, 2007 7:30 PM, Stephen Dondershine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does one necessarily need to add an asterisk indicating that a selection is > required for a radio button selection form input? > > It seems to me that one can argue two ways: > > 1.) The fact that some item in the radio button group will always be > selected tacitly implies that the input is required. It is really impossible > for the User not to mae a selection, so why bother to indicate that it's a > required field? > > 2.) Nevertheless, the required field asterisk draws the User's attention to > the field input itself and the fact that there is potentially a decision to > be made. It is therefore worth including. > > Thoughts? > > Steve > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
