Drop-down menus are a very popular means of offering navigation options and options within forms. Drop-down menus can be especially effective because they are familiar to Web audiences, are easy to use, help reduce errors, and take up a lot less screen space than long menu systems.

However, using drop-down menus shouldn¡¯tbe something done just for these reasons. Offering a menu like this has to make sense. What¡¯s more, usability experts such as Jakob Nielsen make some excellent recommendations when it comes to using drop-downs, such as the following:

- Avoid very long menus. Too many options in a drop-down menu become problematic because they require the site visitor to scroll uncomfortably. This can also cause problems for the mobility impaired, limiting the site¡¯s accessibility.

- Avoid menus with short entries. Any menus offering options with very short entries, such as state abbreviations, also become problematic for visitors. Typing the abbreviation into a text box is easier.

- Avoid menus of known information. Nielsen points out that information we type frequently, such as our birth dates, are better collected via text boxes than drop-down menus. His claim is that this kind of information is ¡°hardwired¡¯¡¯to people¡¯s fingers, and that it¡¯s easier on them to type it than go through the trouble of selecting a drop-down menu.

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