101 UX Principles

Chapter #50. Use Drop Downs Sensibly for Date Entry

A user entering a full date (like a date of birth) should be offered a drop down for the day and month, then a numeric entry for the year. Day and month are sufficiently short that a drop down doesn't feel too cumbersome. It also solves the issue of US dates having their day and month in the opposite order to most of Europe.

Don't use a drop down for the year though: it looks crazy and forcing the elderly to scroll back to the early 1900s seems very unfair. For mobile, use responsive design to show mobile users the date picker, a custom-designed UI on iOS and Android that makes picking dates a piece of cake.

Let's be real, would you rather build your own mobile date entry UI or stand on the shoulders ...