Product for Designers

Decision Cards

Make interface decisions you can defend in any design review.

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Product for Designers · Q1 2027

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Input & affordance

Radio or Dropdown

How many options, and should people compare them?

Use Radio when

A handful of options people should see side by side before choosing: plans, shipping speeds, priorities.

Signs it fits

  • Two to five options
  • Options need comparing
  • Each option needs a short description
  • The choice matters

Use Dropdown when

Many options, or a list where people already know their answer: country, year, time zone. Make it searchable past a dozen items.

Signs it fits

  • More than six or seven options
  • People know their answer
  • Space is tight
  • Searchable when the list is long

The numbers

2–5 options: radio buttons. 6–15: dropdown. More than 15: searchable combobox. Two options that mean on and off: a checkbox or toggle, not radios.

Say this in review

There are only three shipping speeds and the price difference matters, so they’re radio buttons people can compare. Country has nearly two hundred options and everyone knows theirs, so it’s a searchable list.

When it flips

The exception

Even with three options, a dropdown can win inside a dense table row where there’s no room to show them all.

See it work

Make the call

Card 15 of 15

Choosing one of four subscription plans with different prices and features. Radio or dropdown?

Input & affordance
The rule

Show the options when there are few and they need comparing. Collapse them when there are many and people know their answer.

From the lesson “Smart defaults & reducing input”

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