4 ms·
Except, in this scenario, it's relatively easy to come up with a good 99.9% solution: Seven text fields will cover greater than 99.9% of users: Name Addre
by ghshephard 12y ago
Except, in this scenario, it's relatively easy to come up with a good 99.9% solution:
Seven text fields will cover greater than 99.9% of users:
Name
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
City
State
Country
Postal Code
So much of that article discussed stuff that was irrelevant - Live in Singapore? Great, just fill in Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. I've done that on many, many sites and it's always worked fine. Don't have a postal code in Ireland? Most people there learn to try EIRE or 00000.
I think a better article would have been:
"Here are the scenarios in which the 7-text address system doesn't work, and how you can make it better." - But I couldn't find anything that suggested it wouldn't work just fine.
- nodata 12y agoAre these seven fields all required? Because I don't have an "Address Line 2".
- ianhedoesit 12y agoI have never seen anywhere require "Address Line 2." It's only used as a specifier to the address when there are multiple units at the address (office buildings, apartments, and the like).
- nodata 12y agoI bought something last week that required it. I entered a dot.
- lucaspiller 12y agoMy country unfortunately doesn't fit that scenario. Here in the UAE there is no residential postal delivery, so if you want to receive letters you have them sent to a PO Box. Most people usually use their office's, but I have my own. That means you can reach me with simply: PO Box XXXX Dubai UAE For sending parcels to be delivered by a courier you can include a physical address, however most streets here don't have names (and even if they do people have no idea what they are) so people go by directions. Which means something like: Flat XXXX Building Name next to / opposite / near Landmark Area Name In most cases it's best to include a phone number so the courier can phone for directions if they get lost (without street names it's easy), and of course everyone requires a name even though I'm the only person living here and using this PO Box. That means my 'full address' ends up being: Name Surname Tel: 05XXXXXXXX Flat XXXX, Building Name Next To Landmark Area Name PO Box XXXX Dubai UAE In most cases that never fully fits in the length of the fields, or they do something silly like requiring a postcode but limiting it to 5 digits (luckily my PO Box number is only 4 digits in length, but in reality they are [0-9]*). Anything I order from eBay has "NOTPROVIDED" on it as I left out an optional field they think should always be included :D Edit: Area names have their own fun: There is a road going from one end of the country to the other which in Dubai is called Sheikh Zayed Road (it has a number and different names in other emirates :D), but that is also the name of an area along part of the road.
- rtb 12y agoSo what would fix this for you? Same 7 fields, but longer?
- notatoad 12y ago>Most people there learn to try EIRE or 00000. I think this is the key point. Sure, you can come up with some clever and unique system to accommodate the one percent of your user base who isnt well served by standard forms, but that 1% is already used to adapting their unique information into a standard format. Web forms for things like name and address are a sort of ad-hoc standardization of a nonstandard data type.
- mcv 12y agoThe main thing is not to make every field required. I've got nothing meaningful to fill in at state, nor at address line 2. Too many sites make too many false assumptions about addresses.