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Asking for a date of birth (2013)

designnotes.blog.gov.uk

31–40 of 97 posts

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#31

Do note that their new guidelines at https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/dates/#asking-... suggest using `type="text" inputmode="numeric"` instead of `type="number"`.

What does that do? Allow letters to be input in the field, but show a numeric keyboard on touchscreens? Wy would you do that?

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#32
post #12

It's 2022 and input=date should be used instead for date pickers on the Web. https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issu...

The problem is that the web didn't make the right separation between form fields (the composite values you submit) and the actual user facing widgets you use to produce those values.

I want to be able to do things like

    
    
    
so you're stuck with not great UX if the platform-specific picker sucks for your use-case which for this is absolutely does. If you're born in 1950 on iOS have fun spinning the year wheel for a while instead of just typing in the number.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#33
post #12

It's 2022 and input=date should be used instead for date pickers on the Web. https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issu...

The interface looks usually nice, but input=date is horrible to manipulate in many implementations. On iOS choosing year/month is the rolodex interface, as slow and clunky as usual, especially if you’re flipping it for 40~60 years. On android it moves month by month at most, so it’s even funnier to swipe for decades. I think the type=number alternative with validation + confirmation text with the month in letters is…

On Android you can also click on the year and it should give you a grid view of years

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#34
post #12

It's 2022 and input=date should be used instead for date pickers on the Web. https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issu...

The cross-browser support and standardisation for `input=date` (and `input=datetime`) has been notoriously poor for years. It's still only listed as 'partially' supported on some browsers on caniuse.

That's why so many people roll their own.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#35
post #30
post #5

One thing I always felt was an anti-pattern was in any input where months are numbers they don't explicitly mention in an adjacent label the name of the month. Besides the US/UK order confusion, you'd be surprised how often people think August is the 7th month of the year.

There's an unspoken privilege in being born on a day beyond the 12th of any given month, because you'll get a validation error if you mix up the day and month in a form

Even better, just have the same value for each

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#36
post #35
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an unspoken privilege in being born on a day beyond the 12th of any given month, because you'll get a validation error if you mix up the day and month in a form

Even better, just have the same value for each

Yup. 11/11 for me. Can't go to far wrong. Just wish I was born in 2011 (for reasons other than having the same number!) :)

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#37
The dozenade 2000-2012 will surely make many people confused and many badly designed UIs will let incorrect date to slip through. Myself have one date from this range on one of the documents and have to check twice every time I need to enter somewhere this date.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#38
Different cultures have different standards for ordering day, month, and year. Encountering one that you're not used to throws you off quite hard, especially regarding day & month since they're both often two digits.

Relying on input=date would probably abstract that away at the client side, but as people said, browser support for it still seems to be bad.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#39
post #5

One thing I always felt was an anti-pattern was in any input where months are numbers they don't explicitly mention in an adjacent label the name of the month. Besides the US/UK order confusion, you'd be surprised how often people think August is the 7th month of the year.

I heard a standup with a very dark joke, something to the effect of, 9/11 had a silver lining because now he could remember what number month September was.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#40

Usually the best solution is not to ask for date of birth. I guess about one in ten of websites that ask me that actually have a legitimate reason for needing to know. (In the present case, a UK Government website might well have a legitimate reason.)

I tried to help my boss once to log onto Zoom for a meeting. The site asked for date of birth, and not wanting to give any PII I naturally entered some bullshit but plausible date.

Well Zoom locked him out for some time for trying to lie I guess and that meeting had to be moved to Teams.

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