Date Time Picker User Testing

The test should discover:

1. Can users figure out how to move or close calendar?
2. Can users understand the meaning of the colors on the calendar?
3. Can users find the drop-downs to future years and months?
4. Is the scrolling time picker an understandable, usable metaphor?
5. Are users comfortable with dates & times being separate fields? Is there a need to combine the fields or show the time within the date picker?

The test should discover:

1. Can users figure out how to close or move the date & time pickers?
2. Do users understand the meaning of the colors on the date picker?
3. Do users recognize the grouping of options (hours, minutes, am/pm) in the time picker?
4. (for the combined date-time field with tabbed picker) Do users understand the tab metaphor and that they can go back and forth between them when needed?
5. Do users use the mouse to select them, or type in dates and times?
6. Do users comment on what good defaults might be?

The test should discover:

• Whether the tabs of the combined/tabbed Date-Time picker are confusing. If so, we may want to consider other design solutions for a combined Date-Time field.
• Whether users have problems figuring out how to close the time picker, especially if they are only selecting or changing one or two of the three options. We could test this by asking them to change a time from 4pm to 5pm, for instance. If this causes confusion, we may want to consider putting the close button back.
• Whether there is a way to provide an accelerator to users of the Time Picker so they can only click one or two things and it will close (E.g. if values for Hour and AM/PM are selected, in any order, but not Minutes). At this point we don't feel we have enough information to do this and be sure it wouldn't be severely jarring for some users, so we're erring on the side of caution.
• What a user does when they are asked to make an assignment due at 'the very end of the day.' Do they enter 11:59pm or midnight? Do they enter midnight on the correct day? If not, we may want to consider adding a message which is displayed the first time someone selects midnight, letting them know this will actually be the beginning of the selected day.
• Is it confusing that the "alternate presentation of the date" or time (above the text field) doesn't change as the user types in the field (it only changes to match the new date after they leave the field)?