Pills
Options presented as buttons rather than as a list or a dropdown.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — the datastore, then Table Designer to add or edit a field
What it stores
The selection as text, and the type is joinable — so it reports better than the multi-select types while presenting more visually than radios.
Where it earns its place
- Touch interfaces. A pill is a far easier target than a radio button, which matters on a phone.
- Short labels. Options that are a word or two look good as buttons and terrible as a wrapped list.
- Filters. Pills read naturally as a set of toggles across the top of a list.
- Forms people fill in quickly, where a large target speeds things up.
Where it does not
Long labels. A pill containing a sentence stops looking like a button and the layout becomes unpredictable across screen sizes — three pills on one line on a laptop, one and a half on a phone.
If your options need explaining, radios with their explanatory text are the better control.
Keep the set small
The same constraint as radios, and for the same reason. A dozen pills is a wall of buttons that is harder to scan than a dropdown, and the visual appeal that justified the choice disappears.
Order matters more here
Because pills wrap across lines, the order determines the layout. A natural sequence keeps related options together; an arbitrary one scatters them across rows and makes the set look unconsidered.
Test it on a phone
This is the type most likely to look fine in design and wrong in use. Pills wrap, and where they wrap depends on the screen — check the actual layout on a small screen before shipping a form that depends on it.
It is a presentation choice
Worth being clear: pills, radios and a dropdown can all express the same choice. The data is equivalent; what differs is how quickly somebody can answer and how the form reads.
Choose on the strength of who is filling it in and on what device, not because one looks more modern.
Worked example
A mobile inspection form uses pills for condition — good, fair, poor — because inspectors complete it one-handed on a phone and a large target matters. The same value on the back-office screen is a dropdown, since it is one field among thirty and nobody is tapping.
Recommendations
- Use it for short labels and touch interfaces.
- Keep the set small — the same limit as radios.
- Check the wrapping on a phone.
- Choose on usage, not on appearance.