Should I explicitly state that a form field only accepts a specific input format?
My site has a lot of fields that accept a certain format of input only. Do I need to show users that this is the case, or can I rely on them inferring it?
For example, is it better to do this:
First Name: [_____]
Last Name: [_____]
Mobile Phone (Number): [_____]
Date of Birth (DD/MM/YY): [_____]
Time of Birth (hh:mm): [_____]
or this:
First Name: [_____]
Last Name: [_____]
Mobile Phone: [_____]
Date of Birth: [_____]
Time of Birth: [_____]
or even a combination or the two?
I can understand date fields being confusing, but we already have a global setting to swap between mm/dd or dd/mm so the users should be in the environment they prefer already, and in addition, focusing on the text field opens up a date picker which allows for selection of the date from a calendar.