Rachel, If your users will be comparing days & months then you might want to consider a design that omits the year. This makes the dates much faster to read. Multiple years can be handled with headings, grouping, or rendering last year dates in light gray. But, does your table sort supports sorting on data that is not displayed?
This way to display dates is common, for example, in operating system file listings, or bank account reports. The "other year" issue is solved by displaying the year only if it's not the current one. Same as in talk: when you say "December 13" the current year is implicit. You only mention the year if it's another year's Dec 13. -- Juan Lanus On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 9:20 AM, Rachel Sengers <[email protected]> wrote: > Someone asked me "can users sort the data and which elements of the > dates are the most important? Are they comparing days, months or > years, because those could be determining issues in the design." > > Just to clarify - > > The table columns are sortable, so they can sort by dates. In most > cases they will be comparing days & months. Comparing dates in > multiple years is rarer. Sometimes (as shown in my example) they > could be comparing dates that cross a new year (e.g., Dec, Jan). > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36335 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
