Thread by @smashingmag

Everything I think about when I think about date pickers. #uxpatterns

01 — Date picker, a date-range picker or a time picker?
02 — Should it be activated when a user clicks on input/icon?
03 — Should we combine day/month/year into one input field?

04 — Should the date picker contain default preselected values?
05 — Should we include prev day/today/next day nav?
06 — How do we design the navigation between months and years?
07 — What happens if a user clicks on the empty bar?
08 — How do we communicate unavailable options?

09 — Should we allow for smart date input?
10 — Do we use color coding for different rates, frequency or busyness?
11 — Is a date picker the right pattern to use for date selection?
12 — How do we highlight a selected date range?

13 — Do we display a daily/weekly/monthly view by default?
14 — Should users be able to type a date in the input field?
15 — Should users only select predefined values?
16 — Should the date-picker overlay appear? And if yes, when?

17 — Should the date picker contain default prepopulated values?
18 — Should we display availability, price, etc?
19 — Should the week run from Mon–Sun or Sun–Sat?
20 — How do we avoid displaying unavailable dates or zero-results?

If you'd like to see a few more examples of various #uxpatterns, we have a few wonderful online workshops coming in April and May :-) smashingconf.com/online-worksho…