Standardizing ‘select’: What the future holds for HTML Controls

Thought HTML was done? Think again! Those who work on the web platform are ready to extend HTML controls with not only updated native web styles, so that we’re no longer stuck in the Windows 95 era of design, but we’re also starting to look at new HTML controls to help solve some of the problems developers encounter when trying to extend the current controls to fit their needs.

If you build for the web, you’ve probably had that moment when you get to a point you need to build and style your controls, the most common one being the select element. You try to use the native element and style it to match the rest of your design language but the amount of CSS required is exhaustive, and you can forget about extensibility or heavy customization of the controls.

In this talk, I’ll discuss the history behind why HTML controls can be so complex to style, the current state of styling them and their extensibility, and what the future looks like for controls, starting with the ‘select’ element. I’ll also touch on how developers and designers can get involved to help drive the future of this area of the web platform forward to ensure browser makers are building the right solutions to this problem.