Help required

[The_Blode]

Hi all,

Blode here, editor the The Best Free Anonymous Surfing article, and I need your help on a project I'm working on. I'm developing a touch screen check-in application for a doctor's surgery and I wanted to know which way you would prefer to enter your date of birth into such an application;

• Via text input using a virtual keyboard
• Scrolling through a list of values in a listbox (select a date, month and year)
• Using a calender
• Other way? Please specify.

Also, I ask that you specify your age range when voting in the poll, which is appended to the options and which will only be used for statistical data. ALL responses are anonymous.

Thank you for the help,

Blode.

[eyeb]

i preferr the dropdown box with date/month/year...
People wont have confusion about what order to put the day/month if you spell out month.
And it's a bit hard for older people not used to texting on a phone to use a virtual keyboard.

Calendar option would require too much scrolling to select month and year

[1002richards]

Hi,
You say " I'm developing a touch screen check-in application for a doctor's surgery ". My local surgery uses this system already. If you pm me I'll give you my surgery's name/addr and you can contact them to see who their supplier is and what system they use in case there's anything you can make use of?

Richard

[Sope]

I said virtual keyboard as I'm unsure how easy/efficient it would actually be to scroll through drop-down lists and calendar pages using a touch screen?

As eyeb suggests, your main consideration is how easy elderly people will find using the system as they are likely to make up a significant proportion of your users. When you're sick and facing a long wait to see a doctor it doesn't take much to get you frustrated.

I guess the system could offer a screen where you first pick from a list of 1-31 (days) followed by a list of month names, followed by a list of years (or maybe a number pad to type in the year)?

[Awgeewhiz]

Any way of counting the number of rings in my bathtub?

[1002richards]

The one I use has simple large buttons:

Choose: Male Female

Month of birth (12 boxes, one per month!!)

Date (31 boxes)

Are you: name given to click on.

all based on probabilities I guess.

Then a pop-up along the lines of "You are booked in for your appointment with Dr.(name) at (time).
Please take a seat.

[The_Blode]

Originally Posted by 1002richards

The one I use has simple large buttons:

Choose: Male Female

Month of birth (12 boxes, one per month!!)

Date (31 boxes)

Are you: name given to click on.

all based on probabilities I guess.

Then a pop-up along the lines of "You are booked in for your appointment with Dr.(name) at (time).
Please take a seat.

This sounds like a very nice implementation! I may something like it. Thanks for this! And thanks to everyone that responded and voted. You've given me something to work with. Thanks.

Blode.

[1002richards]

You're welcome!