Date Time Picker Problem Statement

The problem

There are a great variety of implementations for date and time selection. The lack of a consistent and effective interface increases the cognitive load of users interacting with these tools, and increases the probability of errors.
Some of these tools allow users to pick the date and time from a dropdown, which requires a lot of tedious scrolling, and often forces the user to look up the dates in another calendar in order to see what day of the week the chosen date is. Some tools let users enter the date and time manually in a text box, heightening the need to educate the users on the date and time format accepted by the system and increasing the likelihood for errors. Other tools allow users to pick the dates from a calendar but fail to distinguish related dates effectively. In many of these tools, users have difficulties indicating the desired date and time information on the first try (without having to refer to other sources), and immediately understanding the chosen dates in the format displayed.

Affects

Students, Faculty, Teaching Assistants, Instructional Designers, Staff, Researchers, or anyone else who deals with scheduling and posting/recording schedule-related information

The impact of which is

Entering dates and times for an event (assignments due date, exams, social event, showing and hiding contents, etc.), which is meant to be a small sub-task of setting up the event, becomes a frustrating and time-consuming task

A successful solution would

Allow the user to quickly and easily select a date and time using the method most convenient for them, and present the information in a familiar localized format