When presenting a select list for the credit card expiration month on a form, is it good practice to include the month name in the select list? Or is it better to just put the month number?
Any thoughts, opinions, resources and guidance are appreciated.
I have cards with the month as a number and ones with a name. (I'm from the UK)
It annoys me that I have to think about converting between numbers and names on a web site.
I much prefer it when the box has both numbers and month.
What I see in your screen capture is a little confusing. It looks like it's saying "August 8, 2010". So I wouldn't mix number with word.
Based on the two cards I have in my wallet right now, the format is either:
MM/DD/YY or MM/YY
I'm not sure if this is standardized, but if it is, it's probably a good idea to match what's actually printed on cards.
If there's no label designating it as a month list, I would include the name in the list item. I frequently encounter forms that don't label them and use only numbers and I never know if the first one is day or month until I click in the box. That applies more to date selectors with three dropdowns, but I like to know what an element is without thinking about it.
Also, for credit card dropdowns, the most common way people are asked about expiration dates (and the way it is represented on the card) is MM/YY in number form, so I would match that as closely as possible. The way you have it now does that because they can enter the number they're looking at on the card and it works.
As an alternative, you could do just text boxes which I prefer as a user because it's less clicking.
Paypal, Amazon, and Newegg all do not show the month name, only the numbers.
So it would seem the de-facto standard is not to include the month name.
I'm not saying this is the best way, just that big internet retailers seem not to.
When asked to enter expiration date, users usually look at their card, where MM/YY format is used. Or they recall it from memory also in this format. So I would use MM/YY - 2 select lists.
Use both the month number and name but do not include leading zeros in the month number.
Thus,
8 - August
and not
08 - August
The reason for excluding the leading 0 is that keyboard autoselect from the drop-down won't work. With the leading 8, the user will be able to select the correct month by pressing the '8' key, with a leading 0 this will be ineffective since 9 out of 12 months will have 0 in them.
Including both August and 8 will provide an easy way for users to verify they have selected the right month.
I honestly cannot think of a reason to either include or exclude the month names. I would use whatever includes the esthetics of your site.
