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From: Gemayel, Ziad
Date: Thu, Dec 04 2003 11:33AM
Subject: Date & phone number format
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Hi everyone,

I am trying to gather feedback regarding two ways of requesting dates and
phone numbers. I think it is more of a usability issue than an
accessibility issue and probably personal preferences are involved.

First style:
Date (example: mmddyyyy) [ ]
Phone (example: 2121234567) [ ]

This format requires input in one field with no spaces and no punctuation.
It also means less tabbing, but may be confusing to some and thus lead to
errors.

Second style:
Date (example: mm dd yyyy) (enter month as mm)* [ ] (enter day as dd)* [
] (enter year as yyyy)* [ ]. The * here means that the text is not
visible, but is placed in the title attribute and therefore is available to
Jaws and Window-Eyes users (I understand that I might be undermining
universal accessibility by considering only Jaws and Window-eyes, but I
would like to focus on the issue of having one input field versus three in
this case).

Phone (enter area code)* [ ] (enter first 3 digits)* [ ] (enter last 4
digits)* [ ]. Again, the * here means that the text is not visible, but is
placed in the title attribute.

Thanks for your feedback,

Ziad Gemayel
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From: Randy Pearson
Date: Sun, Dec 07 2003 7:21AM
Subject: RE: Date & phone number format
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We tend to prefer the first approach, but with the caveat of being flexible
on the back end. For example, in a phone number, don't disallow spaces,
etc., but rather you can strip out any punctuation on the back end and then
validate what's left (and later render with your own preferred formatting).
With dates, the same applies, but we also interpret 2-digit years for their
most likely meaning.

If you go the multi-field approach, there are some JS approaches to avoid
the tabbing by jumping to the next field when the previous one is "full". Be
cautious with these. I've seen some bad ones, and users may not always be
expecting them, which can lead to confusion.

-- Randy

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