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Re: Forms as lists

for

From: Steve Green
Date: Sep 2, 2010 6:59PM

I would react badly to placing multiple choice questions in a definition
list - I don't see that is appropriate in any way. A group of radio buttons
or checkboxes is all that is needed, possibly in a fieldset.

There are countless types of content for which there is not an appropriate
or obvious HTML construction. In these cases it is often best to omit any
structural markup rather than abuse the few HTML elements that we have.

If you are constructing something for which there is not an obviously
correct semantic construction, you should consider what sematic markup will
be useful to people. As a rule, definition lists are useless because they
have such poor support by user agents. By all means use them for their
intended purpose, but there is no value in using them in other ways (e.g.
breadcrumbs, navigation or forms) because no one at all will benefit.

At risk of being inflammatory, I believe a lot of designers are narcissistic
- they they mark up code to please themselves. I think they should be far
more focused on writing code that is useful to people who consume the
content. Of course that's much more difficult and it means understanding and
balancing the needs of groups with varying and maybe conflicting needs. But
that's the job they have chosen.

Steve Green
Director
Test Partners Ltd