Day and Month Pulldowns

Are people clever?

[bateman_ap]

I am building a system where a user needs to choose a date. Am debating through a variety of different methods but have edged towards drop downs instead of calanders.

However my question is how easy is it to fill the drop down with the correct number of days depending on the month chosen, or would a user be clever enougth to ignore up to 3 days at the end of the list. I noticed expedia take this route.

[bakedjake]

I think people are clever enough, yes, but I also think it looks bad when someone can select Feb. 31. :)

I do like calendars a lot, especially the way Travelocity does it (3 at a time). Any reasons you can't do that?

[txbakers]

In my experience, users are generally dolts.

Make it totally idiot proof.

[bateman_ap]

Oh I do like that Travelcity method. Anywhere you can point to to see how it's done?

[bateman_ap]

Should say it is a traditional ASP setup with a SQL database

[choster]

Actually I somewhat prefer the calendar interface at the full flight search [united.com] at United Airlines. Once you select a date for the outbound, you are automatically forwarded to the fields for the return, which adjusts based on your previous input. Also, I don't have to popup a calendar twice (or in United's case, scroll down); if my trip begins in August, why doesn't Travelocity understand I won't be returning in June?

[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 2:03 pm (utc) on June 8, 2004]
[edit reason] Revised unlinked URL [/edit]

[jo1ene]

would a user be clever enough

NO! I would never assume this!