Date and time
Absolute vs. relative
Consider the context when choosing between absolute and relative data and time.
| Type | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Absolute | 13 Aug 2019 at 10:00 am | When is an entry scheduled to be published? The use of relative time is not appropriate because it is not specific. |
| Relative | 3 days ago | When was my collaborator last active? The use of absolute date and time is unnecessarily specific. Provide the absolute date and time on user interaction, e.g. when the user hovers over relative time with their cursor. |
Formats
| Type | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Relative date and time | Never Less than an hour ago 13 days ago 3 months ago a year ago | |
| Absolute time | 8:00 am | Time should be displayed in a 12-hour format. Use lowercase am or pm without periods. |
| Absolute dates | 13 Jan 2019 | Dates should be displayed in order of day-month-year, with month abbreviated and without punctuation, to increase scannability and to strike a compromise between different localized date formats. |
| Absolute date and time | 8 Aug 2019 at 8:00 am | Absolute date and time should be displayed without commas and as human-readable as possible. |
| Weekday | Mon, 12 Aug Wed, 14 Aug at 11:00 pm | Weekdays should be used when it's helpful for users to see weekdays. Display them next to absolute date and time, separated with a comma. |
Ranges
To show a date or time range, use an en dash (Unicode: U+2013, html: –) with spaces around it.
| Type | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 8:00 am – 2:00 pm | |
| Date | 30 Mar – 30 Apr 8 Jul – 13 Aug 2019 13 Dec 2018 – 8 Aug 2019 | Omit the year on the left side if the range is in the same year. Omit it completely if the year can be understood from the context. |
Don't use
| Type | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Relative day | Last Tuesday Today | Not expressed as relative to now. |
| Absolute date | 10/4/2019 10.4.2019 | It's not clear which number is the day, and which is the month. |
| Absolute time or date | 08:00 02 Jan 2019 | Don't use the leading zero in single-digit hours or days. |
| Absolute date | 4th Jan 2019 | Don't add ordinal number suffixes such as -st, -nd, -rd or -th. |