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This is an online app for our product salespeople. This app allows our product managers to create a custom pdf look book that can be emailed or printed out for specific customer. The selection determines what displays in the pdf catalog. So for example, they can choose to just show the retail price, which is preset and/or the custom price. He can set the custom price to anything he wants - even at a loss.

The options are (A) no pricing (B) Retail Price (C) Custom Price (D) Retail Price and Custom Price.

The default selection is (B) Retail Price

If they want to display custom price they have to complete field and enter price.

I originally use radio buttons.

  • A. None
  • B. Retail Price
  • C. Custom Price [with text field to enter custom price]

(C) has a checkbox opt-in to also display retail price for option(D)

original concept

I thought this was awkward so I split into two questions

Display Pricing

  • Yes (default)
  • No

Display Options (checkboxes)

  • Retail (checked by default)
  • Custom [with text field for price]

enter image description here

Is there a solution I'm missing?

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  • What happens if I select display price and then I don't select any of the checkboxes?
    – Nash
    Jun 15, 2022 at 15:03
  • great question. We didn't want to add any friction by validating / requiring they check at least one option. In this case, no prices would display. However, List price is checked by default, so they would have to intentionally uncheck It which is ineffect making the decision not to show any prices.
    – Mark Phoenix
    Jun 16, 2022 at 18:36

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I think it's very difficult and strange to look for an exact price, because:

  • most users won't know the exact price (is it 450? 449.99? 449.90? something else?)
  • it's very uncommon, which leads to the cognitive problems you're facing

I think the most common approach you can use to get the same result (and more) is to use a range. Just add "from 'input'" "to 'input'" and users can facet their search within the desired range.

Otherwise, by the same principle, but using fixed amounts, you can do what Amazon does, as shown below

enter image description here

Edit

After your comment, then I think what you have now is OK, with a caveat: if you want to display ONLY ONE price then it should be a radio input, otherwise, if you want to provide the ability to display both prices, then using checkboxes is OK.

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  • 1
    Thanks for the feedback. I didn't explain the application well enough. This is an online app for our product salespeople. This app allows our product managers to create a custom pdf look book for specific customer. The selection determines what displays in the pdf catalog. So for example, they can choose to just show the retail price, which is preset and/or the custom price. He can set the custom price to anything he wants - even at a loss. I hope this helps, sorry I didn't outline the problem more clearly.
    – Mark Phoenix
    Jun 15, 2022 at 17:08
  • got it. See edit
    – Devin
    Jun 15, 2022 at 17:16
  • Thanks Devin, yes they need to have the option of displaying both prices. Thank you for taking the time to comment and help me validate my solution. Appreciated.
    – Mark Phoenix
    Jun 16, 2022 at 18:27
  • A coworker asked why we don't eliminate the radio button question all together and have the user just unselect the default option if they don't want to display pricing - which would be the same as selecting "No" on the Display prices questions. While this seems more "efficient" to me. I also see value in asking the user to make an implicit choice -and asking the question makes the decision more obvious IMO. Thoughts?
    – Mark Phoenix
    Jun 21, 2022 at 15:20
  • I think that asking users what to do aligns with Schneidermann's heuristic "Provide locus of control", so I agree with what you say about the value of asking users. But again, I think you should validate it through testing, theory not always works in real life
    – Devin
    Jun 21, 2022 at 17:23

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