UX: Form Drop Down vs. Custom Design

I'm rebuilding a language selection interface for a multi-national website, and I'm beginning to think it might be better for usability to use a simple form drop down rather than the custom JavaScript drop down menu that they're currently using. Am I way off base here, or should I go with my ins开发者_如何学运维tinct? What do you think?

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Simple drop down has its advantages. When you let the browser decide what to do, instead of forcing it to do what you want via JS, then browsers for unique circumstances (such as mobile devices) will format the drop down as its native selector.

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If the custom js menu provides no additional functionality then definitely go with the basic select menu. However, if there's a good reason to use the custom menu, consider implementing it in a way that uses progressive enhancement so you can be sure it provides the basic functionality for everyone and adds features for browsers that can support it.

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Any user who reaches the page for setting languages, comes with a specific aim in mind. He already knows what language he wants to set here (just as in most forms people know what they want to fill in for their birth date).

For this reason, I would recommend a text box with autocomplete functionality. Here are the advantages:

• a text-box with a type-ahead works much better than a dropdown in most cases when the user knows what his options are
• a dropdown with searching for "R" functionality doesn't always work the same way for all browsers, and not all browsers implement searching for "RUS...." and beyond.
• from a purely is-this-usable standpoint, the type-ahead will prove to be far more useful over time.

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I wouldn't use a drop down for countries - they are cumbersome to use when the number of items are large (https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/31738/what-is-the-maximum-recommended-number-of-item-to-put-in-a-drop-down-list).

The "start typing a letter" to jump directly to say Russia when pressing R is a great feature in drop down lists - although I suspect that this is a power user feature - one that a lot of users will be unaware of (basically because it's a hidden feature).

Check out this solution instead - http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/10/redesigning-the-country-selector/

Cheers