4 ms·

Seems so simple. Why isn't this used more?

• sstrudeau 17y ago
  I've often thought about this. In the US, addresses are traditionally written in the format: [City], [State] [Zip] The state (and often even the city; there are free datasets for this though they're not perfectly reliable and more expensive) can be inferred from the zipcode, so it seems logical that we ought to prompt first for the zip and then help users along by filling the state on their behalf. I suspect his is not done because people are so used to the City -> State -> Zip pattern, asking them to fill the zip first just breaks their expected flow; a "surprise" that makes them think. I used to work on a case management system for legal aid attorneys that did these lookups and we had to explicitly train them to enter the zip code first (changing field order or tab order didn't help) -- otherwise, they'd never have used it; and some of them still refused to use it, but those who did appreciated the time savings.
  • sumeeta 17y ago
    When I think about it, I'm thrown off by this pattern whenever I see it, too. It's also interesting to think about text input versus dropdown select if you decide to go for manual state entry. I prefer just typing in the abbreviation, but I'm not sure that's suitable for a wide audience.
• camtarn 17y ago
  In the UK, a lot of sites just ask you for your postcode and house number. The postcode allows pretty much everything else to be looked up. I assume there's a fallback to full address in all of these sites, but I've never had to use it. It's a great timesaver.
  • notauser 17y ago
    A UK postcode covers about the same area as the 5+4 digit US zip rather than the 5 digit one. You can get a whole town or more in one 5 digit zip code. I'm not sure many people actually know their full 9 digit zip. Certainly not many of my customers have bothered entering it.