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Re: Datepicker questions - are they useful?

for

From: _mallory
Date: Nov 4, 2015 2:10AM


On Tue, Nov 03, 2015 at 11:23:16AM -0800, Bryan Garaventa wrote:
> ...For example you can view something on a monitor or tablet with ease, but try to do the same on a 2 inch wide iPod screen and it will likely be impossible to interact with.

Hm, a lot of mobiles seem to have their own built-in calendar
software and can also run downloaded calendar apps. I wonder
if it would make sense for the small devices to, when encountering
an input typeĂšte, switch context to whatever built-in calendar
they've got? It removes control from web page developers but
assuming the builtin calendar can accept meta-data from the
site (like that only certain dates should be choosable), we
know these calendars are specifically built for the tiny screens,
built to work with their built-in AT (mags and readers), and
for touch. It could also let users see their own calendar stuff
at the same time (the in-built calendar may show an appointment
on a date the user may be choosing for a trip).

I'm trying to think of another example where clicking something
on a web page would change context, but the only one I can think
of is clicking on another file type and the browser or OS knowing
whether it should open for example Adobe Reader rather than a
PDF in a new tab.

Has there been any discussion in this direction? Especially if it
were something a user could set up on their own device (whether to
allow a web-page datepicker vs using a built-in one), this could
make it mostly a non-issue whether the datepicker works exactly the
same cross-device-- it would instead work however the user was used
to working anyway.

_mallory