[IxDA Discuss] Date Format

[Peter Bagnall]

Hi Alok,

I'm in the UK so the standard date format is dd/mm/yyyy but I always  
use dd/MMM/yyyy because that way I know that regardless of where  
users are from the date will be unambiguous - hence less confusion,  
cognitive load and error. If I were in the US I would do precisely  
what you're suggesting.

With people being mobile, there are plenty of Europeans in the US and  
visa versa who might misinterpret 04/12/2007 - is that 4 Dec 2007 or  
Apr 12, 2007? I know I found that confusing when I was in the US. My  
coping mechanism was to find other dates in the document which were  
not ambiguous to see what format was being used, I never felt  
entirely confident about it.

Cheers
--Pete

On 6 Apr 2007, at 12:49, Alok Jain wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I am working on an application for a US Federal department. They  
> have been
> using the standard date format of mm/dd/yyyy e.g. 04/12/2007. I am  
> of the
> belief that using MMM DD, yyyy e.g. Apr 12, 2007 will be better as  
> it puts
> less cognitive load on the users.
>
> I am aware of ISO standard (yyyy-mm-dd) but am looking for specific  
> research
> data. Is anyone aware of any research on the this? Any eperiences/ 
> opinions?
>
> Regards
> Alok Jain
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
>

----------------------------------------------------------
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
      - Jeannette Rankin, 1880 - 1973

Peter Bagnall - http://people.surfaceeffect.com/pete/