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Im wondering if anyone has any research or experience on how dropdown menus or selects perform compared to dropdown menus with radios controls inside.
I'm considering using them for a filter bar as I already use checkboxes inside dropdown menus rather than use a multi-select as checkbox let the user know they can select more than 1 option.
Airbnb, Google, Shopify, Facebook have started using menus with radios rather than use selects.
A dropdown with checkboxes makes sense when the user wants to select multiple items. This is a pattern you see all the time with filters for example.
A dropdown with a radio does not make any sense to me. Radio buttons should be used when the user can only select one item which is the default behavior of a dropdown. So adding the radio buttons to the dropdown menu is redundant and may add confusion.
I have no research, but good reasons: If you show radio buttons and checkboxes the users immediately see how the selection works inside that dropdown.
If you offer a checkbox outside this is a bit more complicated and users have to know how to select multiples, change the selection, etc.
To users who are familiar with conventional dropdowns the radio buttons may be overdone/unnecessary, but they do not hinder them in any way.
So: for a broad range of users I'd go for the checkbox/radio button version.
