Seems like as relevant a place as any to remind folks that “radio button” UI elements are a skeuomorph of these old-fashioned analog buttons on radios. Because you can only tune to a single...
Seems like as relevant a place as any to remind folks that “radio button” UI elements are a skeuomorph of these old-fashioned analog buttons on radios. Because you can only tune to a single frequency at a time, these buttons were engineered to physically un-press themselves when a different frequency is selected. This way the state of the button (pressed or unpressed) doubled as a visual indicator of the current selection. They also tended to make a satisfying czhunk! sound when activated.
These days most physical buttons are made more cheaply and return to their starting positions immediately (if they move at all). Indication is instead provided via a light or video display. This is mechanically simpler, so arguably more reliable, but at the cost of accessibility since tactile feedback is no longer present. And of course, tons of devices are on the market now with nothing but a touchscreen attempting to do it all, which is unworkable for the visually impaired, error-prone, dangerous for some use cases like car dashboards, and completely decoupled from the actual functionality it controls.
But ironically, the radio button lives on in software displayed on those very touchscreens, minus the physical characteristics that made it especially useful in the first place. It’s kind of like the ubiquitous “save icon” that’s still everywhere today, but only people of a certain age even recognize as a floppy disk and understand the metaphor. To everyone else it’s just some weird abstract shape like ⏩ or ⏸️.
Seems like as relevant a place as any to remind folks that “radio button” UI elements are a skeuomorph of these old-fashioned analog buttons on radios. Because you can only tune to a single frequency at a time, these buttons were engineered to physically un-press themselves when a different frequency is selected. This way the state of the button (pressed or unpressed) doubled as a visual indicator of the current selection. They also tended to make a satisfying czhunk! sound when activated.
These days most physical buttons are made more cheaply and return to their starting positions immediately (if they move at all). Indication is instead provided via a light or video display. This is mechanically simpler, so arguably more reliable, but at the cost of accessibility since tactile feedback is no longer present. And of course, tons of devices are on the market now with nothing but a touchscreen attempting to do it all, which is unworkable for the visually impaired, error-prone, dangerous for some use cases like car dashboards, and completely decoupled from the actual functionality it controls.
But ironically, the radio button lives on in software displayed on those very touchscreens, minus the physical characteristics that made it especially useful in the first place. It’s kind of like the ubiquitous “save icon” that’s still everywhere today, but only people of a certain age even recognize as a floppy disk and understand the metaphor. To everyone else it’s just some weird abstract shape like ⏩ or ⏸️.
And here is a relevant piece about the radio input I read today: https://paulmakeswebsites.com/writing/shadcn-radio-button/