Names, addresses, and dates

[jkshapiro]

Since this is a design system, it would benefit from including some material on how to collect and display names, addresses, and dates.

Some source material that might be useful:

Names:

• https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names
• https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

Addresses:

• https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addresses/

Dates:

• https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-date-format
• https://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time
• https://infiniteundo.com/post/25509354022/more-falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time

[jkshapiro]

Actually, addresses and dates are decently covered at https://design.gccollab.ca/content/formatting.

[s-duffey]

@jkshapiro did you want to suggest more improvements for this or do you feel it's adequately covered in the Formatting page?

[jkshapiro]

If it were me I'd mention ISO 8601, but that's nice to have. The current material on addresses and dates works for me.

For names, there's a common antipattern where a form will ask for three fields: first name, middle initial, and last name. There are a bunch of people out there for whom that doesn't work, including everyone with a first initial, everyone with just one name, and everyone whose family name comes before their given name, and I think this is a reasonable place to call that out.

[RobJohnston]

Another source of addresses, for Canada, the US, and International, is Canada Post: https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp#1416993

[s-duffey]

Thanks @RobJohnston! I think we actually used Canada Post as a base for address validation in one of our apps. Might be nice to include here. I'll do a bit more research and add it in when I have time :)

[RobJohnston]

first name, middle initial, and last name. There are a bunch of people out there for whom that doesn't work, including everyone with a first initial, everyone with just one name, and everyone whose family name comes before their given name,

At IRCC, we've been using the terms "Given name" and "Family name", and making the given name optional. I think the inspiration came to us from a person who had been working at Passport.

[RobJohnston]

Some more existing (bilingual) source material:

Dates: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-communications/canada-content-style-guide.html#wp4-7

Addresses: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-communications/canada-content-style-guide.html#wp4-10