Re: [Gnumed-devel] Display of right-arrow next to Date of Birth in client

[Busser, Jim]

Ah, I see.

The arrows serve the function of communicating time leading up to (or 
following) a birthday, and by extension whether or not the person has already 
had, or remains to have, their birthday during the current calendar year as 
sometimes affects eligibility for school or retirement.

I found single, directionally-pointing arrows, in some instances to the left 
and in other instances to the right, of a date of birth quite confusing.

In this context, they have no intrinsic meaning. 

A right-arrow of a live patient, next to a date of birth, could as easily 
intend to communicate in the case of live patient that "the patient's age is 
growing".

A left-arrow to the right of the date of birth could mean "there is something 
questionable or wrong about that birthdate" or "the age shown as right is based 
upon the birthdate shown at left".

My suggestions are therefore:

1) If the purpose of the arrow was to help communicate whether or not the 
patient has yet to have their birthday within the current calendar year, then 
incorporate this into the displayed

        (age)

for example a patient whose birthday was January 3, 1931 is currently (83 y 1 
m) while Spock, whose birthday is not until March 25th, is currently (82y 10m) 
however both will, by the end of this year, have had their 83rd birthday. 
Accordingly these could be shown as

        (83y 1m [83]) 

        (82y 10m [83])

meaning both "have their 83rd birthday this year".

2) Collapse the use of the currently-ambiguous right *or* left arrows by using 
the pair of arrows together, thusly

                → 07 Feb 1957 ←

to make clearer that attention is being focussed on the date itself and show 
this only during the birthday-signalling interval of interest. as set in the 
GUI "birthday preference" … I do not personally care to have visually-indicated 
to me, today February 7th, that Spock's birthday of March 25th is "in the 
future" or that someone whose birthday was January 2nd already had theirs.

-- Jim

On 2014-02-07, at 12:35 AM, Karsten Hilbert <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 06, 2014 at 02:33:35PM +0000, Jim Busser wrote:
> 
>>> On Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 11:04:44PM +0000, Jim Busser wrote:
>>> 
>>>> but in patients who remain alive, I had found the location
>>>> of the right-pointing arrow (Screenshot 2b, red-circled) less
>>>> intuitive. Also, visually jarring.
>>>> 
>>>> Can it be relocated as suggested in Screenshot 2b, to the same place as 
>>>> occupies the dagger?
>>> 
>>> Take a look at a patient born Feb 1st.
>> 
>> Fortunately for me, I had one such patient, the format of whose date of 
>> birth and age information is attached.
>> 
>> Two questions:
>> 
>> 1. What accounts for the arrow, in this case, being both
>> left-pointing and located to the right of the date
>> of birth instead (as in my last email Screenshot 2b) of to
>> the left of the date of birth, and right-pointing?
> 
> When *will* Feb 1st be this year ?  Oh, wait, it already passed ...
> 
> Contrary to March 22nd ...
> 
> Karsten
> -- 
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