What's the best UI for entering date of birth? [closed]

Answer 1

you can use plugin cxcalendar. It looks like other datepicker. but you can pick year and month in select after clicking year-month title.

Answer 2

I think a date picker just make the move more complicated to enter one's birth date.

As already mentioned, a combination of drop lists for days and months with a text box for the year seems the most efficient for a user. It takes just less than 10 seconds to enter a birth date this way, which is far quicker than a date picker: thanks to the tab key (which all users should learn to use to complete a form), it's fast to go from one form element to the next one.

At least under Macintosh (I don't know about Windows), you also can use the keyboard to access date inside select boxes: thanks to the tab key, you get the focus onto the form element, then press the arrow key to drop down the list, then type for instance 1967 and you get there in the blink of an eye…

Answer 3

I normally use both -- a datepicker that populates a textfield in the correct format. Advanced users can edit the textfield directly, mouse-happy users can pick using the datepicker.

If you're worried about space, I usually have just the textfield with a little calendar icon next to it. If you click on the calendar icon it brings up the datepicker as a popup.

Also I find it good practice to pre-populate the textfield with text that indicates the correct format (i.e.: "DD/MM/YYYY"). When the user focuses the textfield that text disappears so they can enter their own.

Answer 4

I would take a DatePicker. It's the only component that allows expert users to enter it manually and guides novices to enter a date very easy.

The calendar should not pop up if you enter via pressing tab, but clicking on a button. So no expert user is annoyed of it.

Answer 5

As perhaps one of the older people here, and born late in the month, I find drop-down menus for birthdates to be frustrating. I typically have to scroll down on two drop-down menus, and that's awkward. I'd much rather type it in.

If you can have a control designed so that it can either accept drop-down menus or be typed into, and make it clear both work, that would be excellent.

Answer 6

For an advanced user text input is the best, if the user knows the date format, it is very fast. For a not so advanced user I suggest using a datepicker. Since usually you also have advanced and non-advanced users I suggest a combination of text input and datepicker.