Prose v0

Time Measurements

Writing

Expressing time in a user interface is always context sensitive. A due date is a different kind of time information than the duration of a video, and the level of precision necessary will depend on what the user needs to know. These guidelines are meant to help create a consistent display of time across our platform and tools, while providing the flexibility to display the right amount of time information to users.

Calendar Dates

Because schools usually function on a weekly cadence, calendar dates start with the day of the week, as that is often important scheduling information. Day and month names are abbreviated to three letters, with no punctuation except for commas between the day and month time units.

  • Example
    Mon, Jan 1

In some cases, the time of day is important to specify (as when an assignment is due at a particular time of day). Note than "am" and "pm" are displayed in lower case, with a space in front and no punctuation.

  • Example
    Mon, Jan 1, 11:59 pm

In other cases, however, it might more important to know the year than the day of the week (for instance, in a course list where an instructor might have courses spanning multiple semesters).

  • Example
    Jan 1, 2020

While it would be rare for a user to need to know both the year and the exact time of a calendar item, if that case were to arise, the year would go between the date and the time, and the day of the week could be dropped if space is a concern.

  • Example
    Jan 1, 2021, 11:59 pm

Time Durations

In order to promote consistency in our expression of time durations, we've developed the following system of “time breakpoints” to offer a reasonable amount of temporal specificity, without burdening users with unnecessary and potentially confusing levels of detail.

For all durations, an alternative short form can be used when space is very tight.

The preferred or short form should handle the vast majority of durations that would appear in Achieve. If a more precise duration is necessary in a particular use case, you may add the next smaller time unit after the larger, separated by a comma and a space (or add a decimal in the case of seconds). In all cases, round up or down to the nearest unit.

Note that when expressing hours, weeks, months, and years the singular form shown is used when the value is one.

Time increment Preferred form Short form Precise form
Up to a minute Express in seconds 32 sec 32s 32.4 sec
Up to two hours Express in minutes 72 min 72m 72 min, 27sec
Up to two days Express in hours 35 hrs 1 hr 35h 35 hrs, 21min
Up to four weeks Express in days 27 days 1 day 27d 27 days, 3 hrs
Up to one year Express in weeks 38 wks 1 wk 38w 38 wks, 2 days
Up to four years Express in months 28 mos 1 mo 28mo 28 mos, 2 wks
More than four years Express in years 5 yrs 1yr 5y 4 yrs, 7 mos

Internationalization

As we move to more remote learning and expand the number of time zones we serve, terms like “yesterday” and “today” can be potentially confusing, and should generally be avoided. A smaller issue may arise around “this week”, “last week”, and “next week”, because different countries start their weeks on different days. It's better to refer to the guidelines on time duration to specify how long ago something was, or how much time remains.

  • Do
    17 hours ago
  • Don't
    Yesterday

Similarly, expressing dates numerically can be a problem, because much of the world uses a DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD format, as opposed to the US standard of MM/DD/YYYY. Providing the month as text rather than a number avoids the confusion around whether 04/01/2021 means April 1, 2021 or January 4, 2021.

  • Do
    Apr 1, 2021
  • Don't
    4/1/2021

12:00 is a complicated case, as it is technically neither am nor pm, and depending on the time zone could happen either at night or during the day. If a midnight or noon due date is required, we recommend using 11:59 with the appropriate am or pm designation, rather than terms like “noon”, “12 midnight” or “12:00 pm”.

  • Do
    Jan 1, 11:59 pm
  • Don't
    Jan 1, midnight

Most of the world gets around this by using the 24 hour clock (AKA “Military Time”). In this system, the hours are simply counted up from 0 to 23, with no am or pm used. So, 12:30 am would be expressed as 00:30, and 12:30 pm would be 12:30. In the future, we might consider using that approach.

Notes:

Scenarios to consider:

  • Whole assignment LC, NGA, Writing, Reading, Study Plan
  • Individual questions, LC, NGA
  • Individual vs. Average times
  • Time or date ranges
  • Time in the system logged in per day/week/term
  • Estimated duration of SAVI activities, StoryLine, Videos