Dates and Times

In this article, we have laid out some general guidelines for displaying dates and times. All date and time formats included in this article have been approved and are supported by XO and the globalization team.

We have included multiple formatting options and guidelines here for the following reasons:

  1. To give teams working on a variety of use cases the flexibility to choose a format that works best for their feature.
  2. To reduce cognitive load on the user by using easily scannable and understandable formats.
  3. To keep our Workday voice conversational and friendly.

Note: For some teams, ISO formatting is the standard for displaying dates. However, in Workday's UI, we only use ISO formatting in certain instances (as noted below in this article).

Our Recommendations at a Glance

Write Out Dates Whenever Possible

There are several supported ways to display dates in Workday. Here are our quick recommendations:

  • Use a written-out, non-numerical date format whenever possible to improve clarity and readability.

  • Write dates as cardinal numbers (January 2), not ordinal numbers (January 2nd).

  • When writing a date that includes the day of the week, if you fully spell out the day of the week (instead of abbreviating), also fully spell out the month.

Do
  • Wednesday, January 9, 2018
  • Wed, Jan 9, 2018
Don’t
  • Weds, January 09/18
  • Wednesday, Jan. 9th, '18

Use Numerical Formats When Low on Space

  • Only use a numerical format for dates if you have a compelling reason (like a lack of space in table). Workday currently supports an 8-digit format.
Do
  • 01/09/2018
  • 2018-01-09 (ISO formatting)
Don’t
  • 1/9/2018
  • 18-1-9

For more details and specifics, as well as examples of date formatting, read on.

Examples of Supported U.S. Standalone Dates and Times

The following table outlines many standalone date and time variations you might need to use, and how they should be formatted:

TypeNumericalNon-Numerical
Standalone Times05:30 PMn/a
24-hour Time13:00n/a
Time Ranges11:00 AM–09:00 PMn/a
Date, Month, and Year12/02/2018
2018-12-02 (ISO)
January 06, 2018
Feb 7, 2018
Day of Week, Date, Month, and YearTuesday, 06/10/2018
Tues, 06/10/2018
Tuesday, January 6, 2018
Tue, Feb 7, 2018
With Time
(12 hour)
06/23/2018 10:30 AMJune 23, 2018 10:30 AM
With Time (24 hour)06/23/2018 14:30n/a
With Day of WeekTuesday, 06/23/2018 10:30 AM
Tue, 06/23/2018 10:30 AM
Tuesday, June 23, 2018 10:30 AM
Tue, Jun 23, 2018 10:30 AM

How to Format Ranges of Dates

For date ranges, you'll follow all the same rules as above (see Our Recommendations at a Glance), with a few additions:

  • In order to keep date and time ranges as short and clear as possible, only include the minimum necessary information.

  • If the date range is in the same year, don't repeat the year.

  • If the date range is in the same month, don't repeat the month.

  • However, if time is included in a date range, do include the year for both dates listed.

Do
  • Jun 3–24, 2018
  • Jun 3–Aug 17, 2018
  • Jun 3, 2018–Aug 17, 2019
Don’t
  • Jun 3–Jun 24, 2018
  • Jun 3, 2018–Aug 17, 2018

To connect ranges, use an EN dash with no spaces on either side (for example, Jun 3–Jun 24, 2018).

Do
  • Jun 3–Jun 24, 2018
Don’t
  • Jun 3 – Jun 24, 2018

Long or Busy Date Ranges

  • If you find you need a long or visually busy range (such as Tue, 06/23/2018 10:30 AM–Thu, 06/24/2018 01:15 PM PST), try to use other cues or elements, such as headers, on the page to break up the date range. Put repeated information at the top of the page or the beginning of a block of information. Use headers to include information that applies to the information below.
Do
  • Tue, 06/23/2018–Thu, 06/24/2018:
    10:30 AM–11:30 AM PST Session 1
    12:30 PM–1:30 PM PST Session 2

Examples of Supported U.S. Date Ranges

The following table outlines most date and time range variations you might need to use, and how they should be formatted:

TypeNumericalNon-Numerical
Same Month06/23/2018–06/24/2018Jun 3–24, 2018
Same Year06/23/2018–8/17/2018Jun 3–Aug 17, 2018
Different Years12/31/2018–01/01/2019Jun 23, 2018–Jun 24, 2019
With Time
(12 hour)
06/23/2018 10:30 AM–06/24/2018 01:15 PMJun 23, 2018 10:30 AM–Jun 24, 2019 01:15 PM
With Time (24 hour)06/23/2018 10:30–06/24/2018 14:15n/a
With Day of Week (Abbreviated)Tue, 06/23/2018 10:30 AM–Thu, 06/24/2018 01:15 PMTue, Jun 23, 2018 10:30 AM–Thu, Jun 24, 2018 01:15 PM
With Day of Week (Spelled Out)Tuesday, 06/23/2018 10:30 AM–Thursday, 06/24/2018 01:15 PMTuesday, June 23, 2018 10:30 AM–Thursday, June 24, 2018 01:15 PM

Time Durations

Use the following preferred formats when writing out durations of time:

Do
  • 6 hours, 15 minutes
  • 1 hour, 1 minute
  • 6 hrs, 15 min
  • 1 hr, 1 min

Month and Day Abbreviations

When abbreviating months and days of the week, use the table below. Do not include a period after the abbreviation.

Day of the WeekMonth
Monday → MonJanuary → Jan
Tuesday → TueFebruary → Feb
Wednesday → WedMarch → Mar
Thursday → ThuApril → Apr
Friday → FriMay → May
Saturday → SatJune → Jun
Sunday → SunJuly → Jul
August → Aug
September → Sep
October → Oct
November → Nov
December → Dec

Why Can We Only Use These Formats?

In Workday, we have 2 separate user preferences that may affect date and time formatting: locale and language.

Workday supports more than 80 locales. Locale drives numerical date and time formatting (dates and times written only in numbers, like 05/23/2019 or 23/05/2019).

Language drives the formatting of written-out, non-numerical dates and times. For example, June 23, 2019 in French is written as 23 juin 2019. Workday supports around 30 languages.

The locale and language will affect things like the order that days and months are presented in, whether time is given in an AM/PM or 24-hour format, and more. Most translation and localization is handled automatically through format masks, which change the way dates and times are displayed in other locales or languages. Because this work is done automatically, we can only use date and time formats that have been approved by the globalization team, so that dates and times can be easily redisplayed for all of our worldwide customers.

If you are not sure that your dates will be automatically masked or translated by Workday, use the ISO formatting included in the example tables above.

If you have more questions about how to format dates and times, or need to use a format not listed here, please reach out to the content team (ux-product-content) to see if it can be supported.

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