- It predominantly addresses the lowest-common-denominator subset of users: beginning / un-savvy users who are using a site / its forms for the first time, but the article attempts to make a point by referencing behaviors of familiar, advanced users: navigating a form's fields using the keyboard: Most forms begin with text fields where users type in their input. But when a select menu appears, they have to move their hands from keyboard to mouse to select an option. This interrupts their typing flow and slows them down.
- Discourages the use of select menus because they are 'hard to read' and require 'dexterous mouse maneuvering', but both of these can be mitigated via CSS.
The article has good points and has some good recommendations and is useful for its target use case, but the absolutist prescription, 'The Only Time to Use a Select Menu', seems to only address a specific case: using a form on an unfamiliar site for the first time, which would be fine for the article if were stated as such. However, there are many times when a select menu is appropriate: familiar users who use a site multiple times, when available space and / or menu population precludes the use of radio buttons, etc.