[HN Gopher] Designing content for people who struggle with numbers
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       Designing content for people who struggle with numbers
        
       Author : DanBC
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2023-09-21 07:28 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (service-manual.nhs.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (service-manual.nhs.uk)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | sings wrote:
       | The separate page on punctuation is interesting. They recommend
       | against using curly apostrophes, although they do not give a
       | rationale for this choice.
       | 
       | That page doesn't follow its own advice. It recommends against
       | contracting "you have", but goes on to do so later in the page.
       | Contradictions are always a bit funny on a style guide because of
       | the imperative voice.
        
         | angrymouse wrote:
         | Im sure the team would welcome issues and pull requests on
         | GitHub
        
       | toddmorey wrote:
       | This is good guidance except they get the date format wrong.
       | 
       | (Teasing. I've always thought the US MM/DD/YYYY format makes
       | absolutely no sense. Why don't the units go small, bigger,
       | biggest? Why do we continue to put up with that?)
        
         | mulmen wrote:
         | DD/MM/YYYY also makes no sense because it doesn't sort
         | lexicographically and each component is big endian but the
         | overall date is little endian.
         | 
         | Only YYYY/MM/DD HH24:MI:SS makes sense. Choose your sepators.
        
         | kevinventullo wrote:
         | I prefer YYYY-MM-DD format because alphabetical order
         | corresponds to chronological order.
        
           | fsckboy wrote:
           | i invented my own which i find easier or at least more useful
           | to read, and a requirement is it does sort properly:
           | YYYYMMmonDD
           | 
           | today is 202309sep21
           | 
           | because i use it for filenames, i don't put in extra
           | punctuation, there are enough cues in the format as is. To
           | really see it, imagine scanning a list of files with
           | different dates
           | 
           | it will still collate properly mixed with languages other
           | than english
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | NeoTar wrote:
         | I think if you are writing for a single-language audience (as
         | here), then the best format is to write the month in full as
         | they advise (6 August 2018), because it will totally avoid
         | ambiguity.
        
         | browningstreet wrote:
         | I usually know what month it is. I often have no idea what day
         | it is. Anchoring date format in month first gives me a warm-
         | fuzzy that allays anxiety when I'm punched in the gut by the
         | mysterious "day of month" detail. I usually need to know
         | today's date more often than I need historical ones.
         | 
         | None of this helps with organizing photo libraries, legal
         | documents and video archives.
         | 
         | /s but maybe not...
        
         | avmich wrote:
         | Dates like 2023-09-21 looks like a pretty good approach,
         | except, apparently, when communicating with Kazakhstan-related
         | peers.
        
       | lemming wrote:
       | It's wild to me how prevalent and yet how poorly understood
       | dyscalculia is. It's around 6% in the Caucasian population, which
       | pretty much guarantees one kid has it in every classroom. And
       | yet, there's very little good info on what actually works when
       | teaching affected kids (source: my daughter has it), especially
       | compared to the enormous well oiled machine that swings into
       | action when a kid is diagnosed with dyslexia. I get that dyslexia
       | is worse because you have to be able to read to learn anything,
       | but it's frustrating.
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-21 23:00 UTC)