March 23, 2026
Dropdowns Gone Wild
Abusing Customizable Selects
Dropdowns get a glow‑up—and devs are divided
TLDR: Browsers now let developers fully restyle dropdown menus, turning a once-boring control into a creative playground. The crowd is split between delight at playful possibilities and dread of flashy “UI monstrosities,” with a growing chorus asking for a universal “reader mode” to keep forms clean and usable.
Web devs just got a shiny new toy: customizable dropdown menus that can be dressed up like a runway model. The article’s author shows off playful demos—like a stack of folders you can pick from—made possible by a new browser feature that lets you fully restyle the button and menu, and even tuck little elements inside each choice. It only works on the latest Chrome‑like browsers for now, but if yours doesn’t support it, you’ll just see a normal menu. No harm, just less sparkle.
But the comments? They went full fireworks. One camp is thrilled by the creativity—one fan said these demos are “more interesting than 10 Google tools,” dragging corporate‑style “no surprises” design. The other camp is dreading the “UI glitter bomb,” predicting dropdowns that spin, bounce, and do backflips. The quote that stole the show: a plea for a universal “reader mode” that strips effects from over‑designed menus—like a big OFF switch for visual chaos.
Jokes were flying: “Please don’t turn my billing form into Vegas,” and the timeless meme, “Cool, but can it run Doom?” Meanwhile, practical voices popped up asking for restraint and accessibility. Verdict: the web’s most boring control just became a canvas—and the community is split between gallery opening and crime scene.
Key Points
- •Customizable <select> is demonstrated through a playful folder stack demo using minimal HTML and CSS for visuals.
- •The feature currently works in recent Chromium-based browsers and gracefully falls back to standard selects elsewhere.
- •Developers can include nested HTML (e.g., <span>) inside <option> elements due to relaxed HTML parsing rules.
- •Opt-in to customization by applying ::picker() with appearance: base-select to the select and its dropdown.
- •The default picker icon can be hidden with ::picker-icon, and the button is styled with advanced CSS effects.