MondayLunchCrew

My approach to web design, interior design is about usability. I try every hard to always try to think of ways to make the things around me work better. I read this today regarding the Date field in forms and how different countries format it differently:

I used to be a programmer. I know it is not difficult to write a piece of software that checks this stuff and filters it or at least asks ‘Did you mean March 12th or December 3rd?’ As usual we seem to be working for the machine and not the other way round.

Bad Language / The number you dialed is inappropriate

Inside my skull, I smacked my head and said Doh! Why don’t we do this?

Yes, it’s not the usual but it sure is very user-centric and friendly. It’s only a little more work than the usual date check.

The only thing I can think of, is that it would be annoying to users who, for the most part, are using the date in the format you want and not making a mistake. They would have used one more click than needed. Likely would have been confused with such a message since they do not realize that people don’t use date formats the same way they do in their country.

I think currently the most flexible way to do this is to use the popover calenders to select a date. But for those, you force everyone to do extra clicks. Not ergonomic (extra clicks = extra pain for RSI sufferers) nor that user friendly.

Is it better to check what country your user is from and give them an interface that’s appropriate for their use? Most of the time, this means forcing someone to use only the websites you’ve designed (as a multi-national) for their country. That bugs me, since I find that most other country sites are lack luster representations to the home or biggest market country.

So, is there a better solution?

So far, every scenario I can think of will piss off some users. I guess that’s why most companies in their web design will go with the most value for your dollar. Satisfy as many as you can, and not to pay to code for the other percentages. This assumes of course, that those others are not going to bring you more revenue. Hard choices to make.

In the mean time, I’m going to cherish the feeling I had when I read the above quoted line.

There are more creative ways to tackle a problem. I need to allow myself to think more openly.

Keep the creative juices in problem-solving. Even if the solution you end up implementing is the usual standard; you would have come to it having explored more options. Who knows, maybe one day, one of those out there ideas’ time will come.

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