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I have a tool that will display photos in reverse chronological order (latest photo first back to the oldest photo)

The tool has the option to set a date range and this will display the photo in reverse chronological order for the date range.

Currently I have a range selector controls with text "latest date - earliest date", like this:

enter image description here

I have noticed other date range selectors with text "start date - end date", but this is usually for chronological order not reverse chronological order.

What is the best way to display the date selector control and text for date selector for reverse chronological order?

Both values are not required, user can enter just one of the date value. For example if user just enters "latest date", then photos starting that date will load until the oldest available date. If just "earliest date" is entered, then it will load the most recent photo until that date.

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I have personally always had problems getting the mental image of the concepts 'earliest' and 'latest' right (like, which is first and which is last). If you would ask me to do this in reverse chronological order, I'd have even more trouble. It's not that I cannot do it, but it takes me too long to process.

What works really well for me is seeing month/year combinations. If I see the latest month in a drop-down, and the very first month/year for which the system has photos on file in another drop-down, I can easily see that the list is going back in time, and narrow the range accordingly.

[July 2016] > [December 2013]

I take a lot of photos, but rarely filter them by anything more specific than month.

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  • Good feedback, I'm thinking about [Today] - [August 2011], this may make it clear ? – krisrak Jul 3 '16 at 23:01
  • Yes, very clear! Good luck on the project! – Gino van de Staaij Jul 7 '16 at 8:04
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Use Natural Language

Using preset time ranges works for most people most of the time so I would start with options for Pictures taken today, yesterday, this week, last week, this month, last month

Sometimes users need to specify a very specific range to filter on though it's usually rare enough to keep it hidden until they choose a custom range option.

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  • thanks for feedback, will have to find a datetime picker library with presets. – krisrak Jul 3 '16 at 23:02
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    you just need to add a dropdown above your current date/time picker which sets the range automatically for the user based on their choice (today, past 3 days, past week, past month, etc.) -- the actual date/time picker should remain hidden unless the user selects the custom time range option at the bottom of the dropdown list. hope this helps – DaveAlger Jul 4 '16 at 0:14

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