Why Do Developers Hate The <label> Tag?

One of the most common usability faux pas I find all over the internet is the lack of developers linking up radio buttons with their labels. Why should we be forced to click a tiny little circle when we should be able to click the actual text for that choice?

It's built into the HTML spec so why don't developers use it? Even some of the biggest sites on the web are guilty of this one. I just don't get it.. it's not exactly rocket science.

Just give an ID to your radio button, like so:

<input type="radio" name="whatever" id="selection1" />

then wrap the text that goes with that radio button in a label tag, as such:

<label for="selection1">selection 1</label>

Here's a full example with a few selections to choose from.. notice how you can just click the text to select the choice you'd like:




The full code for that was:

<input type="radio" name="whatever" id="selection1" /> <label for="selection1">selection 1</label><br />
<input type="radio" name="whatever" id="selection2" /> <label for="selection2">selection 2</label><br />
<input type="radio" name="whatever" id="selection3" /> <label for="selection3">selection 3</label><br />

With all of the attention being given to usability in this Web 2.0 world, let's make sure we've got 1.0 covered first.

Comments (Comment Moderation is enabled. Your comment will not appear until approved.)

Archives By Subject

Calendar

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

Latest from MXNA

Recent Entries

No recent entries.

Recent Comments

BulletProject Tracker v2.0 Released
Joe Danziger said: @Doug - thanks, glad you like the app! You can add the following to the <cfapplication> call ... [More]

BulletProject Tracker v2.0 Released
Doug said: Great App! How can I increase the time before the session times out? thanks! [More]

BulletProject Tracker v2.0 Released
Joe Danziger said: @Ron - You can access the demo with username admin and password admin. [More]

BulletProject Tracker v2.0 Released
Ron Stewart said: Joe: from the screenshots and the blog entries, this looks pretty cool. I'd like to play in the demo... [More]

BulletProject Tracker v2.0 Released
Mike G said: very very very nice work Dan, nearly blew my load when I saw you even included an API to access ever... [More]

RSS


Search

Sponsored Links

Wimpy MP3 Player
Wimpy MP3 Player
easy streaming media
for your coldfusion site



Subscribe

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog.

Tags

ajax coldfusion