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Asking for a date of birth (2013)

designnotes.blog.gov.uk

71–80 of 97 posts

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#71
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

But how is that easier than just tapping 4 numbers?

It depends. Perhaps for blind people tapping 4 numbers isn't so easy.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#72
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...

author here, for known dates like date of birth it's still easier and faster to just type it in. Also type=date has accessibility problems and the design varies a lot, so people might get a decent experience on one browser/OS and a really poor one on another

Still, if many sites use this standard the users will be used to its UI and the vendor has a chance to improve it for everyone when people complain about it.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#73
post #57
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.

Confession: I'm nearly 40 damn years old, and I still second-guess month numbers enough that I usually just count starting from January, ticking them off on my fingers, and going through them one by one, to reach the one I need.

Same here, but only for July and August!

I don't know why, but I can easily map 1-6 to Jan-Jun. And I can easily map 9-12 with Sep-Dec. But July and August always trip me up.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#74

What really bothers me is that most of time when the date of birth is asked it is done as a way to determine some age criteria. The same could be achieved simply asking "are you older than N years old? [Yes] or [No]". For example, I want to buy Quake on the Nintendo eShop. The website wants to know my age in order to show me a age restricted game. So it will always ask me the age same question even if I have already…

I remember some liquor site in the US (totalwine IIRC) used to ask are you born after to ascertain age and it worked pretty well.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#75
Saw one site that had buttons for the decade (e.g. 1960's) that turned into a group of ten year buttons (e.g. 1960, 1961) and a back button. Thought it was a bit faster than the standard drop down. Month / Day did the same thing. Wish I remembered where it was, might have been some conference registration site.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#76
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this a by-product of some compliance or self-regulatory requirement like ESRB? Yes, Steam addressed this an announcement a few years ago: > Q: Why do you KEEP asking my damn age throughout the store? > A: We're with you on this. Unfortunately, many rating agencies have rules that stipulate that we cannot save your age for longer than a single browsing session. It's frustrating, but know we're filling out those a…

It's surprising that they are not even allowed to remember that you are older than, say, 21.

I can understand the “better safe than sorry” mindset. If I have a 15 year old son who wants to play Resident Evil, I’d be willing to let him play it, despite the “M” rating. But I wouldn’t then want a service to set it so that he’s allowed to view M-rated games in perpetuity, since M-rated games can vary greatly.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#77
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 have, occasionally, thought that (for example) October = 8th month because it starts with "Octo". Yes, I know, historically it was.

That would be cool. So June would be Hexember, Hexober, or Hexuabry. January would be odd though - Mono-vember.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#78

What really bothers me is that most of time when the date of birth is asked it is done as a way to determine some age criteria. The same could be achieved simply asking "are you older than N years old? [Yes] or [No]". For example, I want to buy Quake on the Nintendo eShop. The website wants to know my age in order to show me a age restricted game. So it will always ask me the age same question even if I have already…

> Is this a by-product of some compliance or self-regulatory requirement like ESRB? Yes, Steam addressed this an announcement a few years ago: > Q: Why do you KEEP asking my damn age throughout the store? > A: We're with you on this. Unfortunately, many rating agencies have rules that stipulate that we cannot save your age for longer than a single browsing session. It's frustrating, but know we're filling out those a…

Steam always remembers my date of birth: Jan. 1 1900, just like half their users.

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#79
post #18

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.)

If you're verifying (air quotes) something like whether someone is 21, I wonder if it would make better sense to ask the year of their birth, then ask the month and day only if they answered with the year where it mattered. You don't need to be that granular most of the time, so why put people through the hassle?

21 according to which jurisdiction? Is the USA the only one that counts?

Re: Asking for a date of birth (2013)

#80
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this a by-product of some compliance or self-regulatory requirement like ESRB? Yes, Steam addressed this an announcement a few years ago: > Q: Why do you KEEP asking my damn age throughout the store? > A: We're with you on this. Unfortunately, many rating agencies have rules that stipulate that we cannot save your age for longer than a single browsing session. It's frustrating, but know we're filling out those a…

Steam always remembers my date of birth: Jan. 1 1900, just like half their users.

For me it's always 1990-01-01
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