6 ms·
I don't understand the presentation. Allow the user to choose nationality from a drop down box, then show a world map colored various ways: - green no visa -
by wting 14y ago
I don't understand the presentation.
Allow the user to choose nationality from a drop down box, then show a world map colored various ways:
- green no visa
- blue for easy to obtain visas
- red for difficult to obtain visas
On a side note, it should probably be "United States citizen" and not "US". Also, US -> China is a very common route that requires a visiting / mailing your passport to a Chinese embassy to obtain a visa that you should probably have listed.
- udit99 14y agoYour suggestion sounds exactly like <Shameless_plug> Visamapper (www.visamapper.com) </Shameless_plug> But DoIneedAVisaFor is a more direct way to answer the question if you already know your Destination.
- mmahemoff 14y agoI like your site, but why not show the color key below the map?
- udit99 14y agoThats how I originally had it, then the legend increased in size and refused to fit cleanly under the map and I pulled it out. Would you consider it a huge deal or a minor distraction?
- jonathanberger 14y agoI just tried to visit but got a "can't find the server" error.
- nico 14y agoUsually it's pretty easy to get a Visa on arrival at most African countries, yet when I tried to add that, I was asked to log in through either Google or Facebook (I like neither). When I saw that it required my permission to use some data on my Google account even when I'm not using the site, I declined and then got a typical Rails error page.
- udit99 14y agoThe permission to use some data is the minimum permission requested (Email address). The intent here is to use OAuth to allow easy logins, not harvest data. BTW, The entire site is open-source at http://www.github.com/udit99/visamapper http://www.github.com/udit99/visamapper, so not only can you a) Verify that there is no foul play, but b) send pull requests with alternative login methods.
- supyus 14y agoIt looks great. Sadly I couldn't find Singapore in this map (well, it has 182 countries listed), but yeah that may happen when we try to cluster all the information in one single page.
- jlangenauer 14y agoFinding an actual authoritative source on Chinese visa requirements has been difficult - there's a lot of second hand information around, but nothing official that I can find.
- wting 14y agohttp://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1089.html#entry_requirements http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1089.html#e...
- seanmcdirmid 14y agoHow is the state department an authoritative source for Chinese visa requirements? They change them about every 6 months anyways, the invitation letter is a new thing they started last year.
- wting 14y agoWell you could follow the link they have to the DC Chinese Embassy: http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/ http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/
- seanmcdirmid 14y agoEven those aren't maintained very well. Best to just have a good visa desk at work that keeps up with all the nuances.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jasonkester 14y agoIndeed. Probably the easiest way to get a Chinese visa these days it to go to Bangkok. Hand your passport to any travel agency on Ko San road and they'll send a guy over to the embassy to sort everything out for you. And somehow it works. Way smoother than trying to convince the embassy in LA to process your application, and likely more convenient that going to LA in person (which might not even get you anywhere depending on the whims of the Chinese at that moment).
- neilk 14y agoSEO.
- deno 14y ago+1 Also, you could preselect the value in the 1st box using Geo-IP DB and/or browser geolocation API[1]. [1] http://diveintohtml5.info/geolocation.html http://diveintohtml5.info/geolocation.html
- anigbrowl 14y agoTo be honest, I don't think that easy/difficultis that helpful, especially when people usually know where they want to go. Although this text-based answer is not as impressive visually, and could be improved with automatic linking or perhaps using a map to select origin and destination countries, I think it's better to give the information in textual form to avoid misunderstandings.
- eloisant 14y agoWhen people know where they want, they check the consulate of that country. Actually, even if some website tells you that you don't need a visa, you better check the consulate anyway. On the other hand a map would be an interesting way to see what country you can easily go.
- bsimpson 14y agoAmerican citizen should be aliased as well. When I see a list of words like Afghan, Albanian, and Armenian, it makes me think the list describes nationalities as adjectives, not country names. If you ask most US citizens which adjective they'd use to identify their nationality, they'll say American.
- hmottestad 14y agoAll my friends from Canada and South America find this hilarious. But then South Korea simply calls itself Korea and ignores the north.
- wandermatt 14y agoSo these are people who live outside of the United States that describe their nationality as "American"? Do any of them live in countries that actually have "America" in the name?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- hmottestad 14y agoOne of my canadian friends likes to raise her hand at big meetings when someone asks if there are any americans there.
- smsm42 14y agoI would disagree. My use case is usually either "I'm considering a vacation in Elbonia, would they let me in", or "OMG, I have a work trip to Elbonia next week, should I get some visa or what?" For both, the big map is useless and the API provided is perfect. Only problem it doesn't cover all countries...
- flexie 14y agoCome on. It's a great little service whether there is a map or not. Drop downs with autocomplete work well for choosing countries. I especially like that there are links to primary sources and that the service is careful when it doesn't know: "Sorry, we've no information available. We're careful to only use accurate, first-hand information, but have been unable to confirm the visa requirements for Andorran citizens travelling to Angola."
- officemonkey 14y agoI suppose that OP wanted feedback. Suggestions for improvements aren't criticism, they're free consulting.
- timme 14y ago"I don't understand the presentation" as a reaction to two massive dropdowns qualifies as consulting these days?
- officemonkey 14y agoYou get what you pay for.
- mcintyre1994 14y agoI agree that there's no need for a map and the dropdowns work okay, but I do also agree that it'd be really neat to have a summary into categories. I know this data isn't human written, but I expect they could be classified into yes/no at least extremely naively.
- ColinWright 14y agoDisagree that your suggestion should be the only option. Many people are going to travel to a country, and yet they can't pick the country on a map. Being able to input the country name is very important. I would suggest that the user should be able to type the name, or part of it, and have the interface suggest closest matches for the cases (most) where they get it wrong but close enough.
- pauljz 14y agoRegarding the US to China route, this is more complicated than it would seem. While getting a visa is probably the easiest solution, there are some situations where it is not required. An example being that you can enter visa-free into Shanghai for 48 hours if you're in transit through the airport. There are some other odd visa-on-arrival schemes available for places like Shenzhen if you're arriving via Hong Kong (although I think this isn't available to US citizens, only to Australians, and a few other nationalities). I wouldn't be surprised if this is true of some of the other Special Economic Zones as well (e.g. Hainan island). It can be really hard to find this information though, even through official channels. So this kind of confusion is what the author is up against when collecting data.