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Put the zip code first

zipcodefirst.com

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Re: Put the zip code first

#231

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

collingreen wrote: post #227
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% of the US population is 35 million people. That's a pretty weird version of "nobody".

This is a bad hill to die on for a ux conversation. "10% can feel kind a big number when 100% is huge" is a funny argument, as is trying to be pedantic about "nobody knows" as a shortcut for "most people won't know and you can't rely on any particular user knowing". If 10% is big enough to matter I can't wait to tell you about 90%!

I'm not suggesting that one would design for the 10%, but I also think that writing off 10% - "nobody" - (particularly of a large number of people) is pretty dumb too.

Re: Put the zip code first

#232

Post by [deleted] »

gmueckl wrote: post #93
hyperhello wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the example, you might at least be able to cut down your menu choices to Maine or Mexico.

Only if you're limiting yourself tok those two countries. A lot of countries use the entirety of a 4 or 5 digit range for their codes. Any given 5 digit number is likely a valid ZIP code in at least half dozen countries.

[deleted]

Re: Put the zip code first

#233

Post by albedoa »

collingreen wrote: post #227
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% of the US population is 35 million people. That's a pretty weird version of "nobody".

This is a bad hill to die on for a ux conversation. "10% can feel kind a big number when 100% is huge" is a funny argument, as is trying to be pedantic about "nobody knows" as a shortcut for "most people won't know and you can't rely on any particular user knowing". If 10% is big enough to matter I can't wait to tell you about 90%!

> "10% can feel kind a big number when 100% is huge" is a funny argument

That would be a funny argument if it were the one being made.

Re: Put the zip code first

#234

Post by [deleted] »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #220
hyperbovine wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand either of these arguments. They both appear to reinforce the point made in the article. At worst a zip code contains multiple cities? Voila the city box becomes a dropdown. It’s 2025. JavaScript.

As long it does become a dropdown, fine. But in TFA's example it does not (my zip has 3 possible city names; TFA's example shows only 1).

[deleted]

Re: Put the zip code first

#235

Post by DangitBobby »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #221
devman0 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if a zip code contains multiple cities, each ZIP has one "preferred" locality name and you can default to that. Any of the locality names within a zip code is deliverable for all addresses in that zip code.

As has been pointed out in many other comments implicitly and explicitly, the purpose of a set of address fields in an HTML form is not always to come up with a USPS delivery address.

Does that mean you shouldn't choose sane defaults or...?

Re: Put the zip code first

#236

Post by aidenn0 »

daft_pink wrote: post #203
thfuran wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But addresses aren’t just for sending mail. Location also determines which municipal and state laws apply, so there are contexts where the distinction matters.

I would just like to point out that the city field doesn’t necessarily prove anything because many unincorporated areas have a listed a city but may not be subject to the laws or taxes of a municipality. So having the correct city isn’t as useful as one thinks it is.

I live in a zip code that spans two cities and I live in the unincorporated area between them, but with one of the cities in my preferred address. So at least two of the exceptions listed in this thread apply.

Re: Put the zip code first

#237

Post by aidenn0 »

hyperbovine wrote: post #106
bicx wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 1000 times. I’ve tried implementing what OP has mentioned, and quickly learned it isn’t possible. A city can also exist in multiple zip codes. And there can be multiple cities with the same name in the same state. So, to be safe, you have to enter city, state, and zip.

I don’t understand either of these arguments. They both appear to reinforce the point made in the article. At worst a zip code contains multiple cities? Voila the city box becomes a dropdown. It’s 2025. JavaScript.

Except that's not what this page does, so it's harder than TFA makes it out to be. I am in a zip code that spans two cities, and it won't let me change the city name at all once I put my zip code in.

Re: Put the zip code first

#238

Post by hakfoo »

wildzzz wrote: post #199
Spooky23 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UI pattern is still stupid. You should be able to quickly enter forms like this on a keyboard. When I look for a part for my car, I pick “Honda”, “Model Year”, “model”, “trim”. With address forms, if I type “U” in a keyboard aware field, it defaults to “US Minor Outlying Islands”. Places that try to accommodate will put the US and Canada first. If you asked country, first, you could utilize the postcode method. S…

A tangent, but I've always wondered what is the most efficient way to order the drop-down menus for year, make and model. Assuming your a retailer for hard to find car parts, e.g. rockauto, how do you order those menus such that someone has to do the least amount of scrolling? Year cuts down a number of defunct or newer manufacturers but Make cuts down the number of years for that same group.

I went year-make-model many years ago when I did an autoglass website.

The filtering value is big as you said, and the model year as a first filter is easy to type in, and probably gets you reasonably close if you're off-by-one. Accidentally picking an '05 Sonata instead of an '04 probably has similar parts, but if you pick Honda instead of Hyundai, you're way off in Wonderland.

Re: Put the zip code first

#239

Post by awesome_dude »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #197
awesome_dude wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? I have a 4 digit postcode, I have to look it up every time I have to fill in an address form for delivery. I've had people screw 1 digit up in that postcode and their items (a laptop in one case) went to the completely wrong city. A code sounds foolproof, until you realise most people don't engage with them for most of their lives - you don't tell the uber driver the zip/post code you are waiting in, and travell…

> I have a 4 digit postcode, I have to look it up every time I have to fill in an address form for delivery. > A code sounds foolproof, until you realise most people don't engage with them for most of their lives - you don't tell the uber driver the zip/post code you are waiting in, and travelling to, nobody does. When the above comments said +4, they meant knowing the second half of the nine digit zip code. Basicall…

> Basically everyone in the US knows the first 5 digits. It's really easy to memorize them. If you can remember your city, you can remember your zip code. And in the US you use it all the time, so it stays memorized.

What's the 5 digits for Yonkers New York (edited because I originally had NYC)

> That complaint about magic numbers is completely off base. Magic strings are just as bad in software. "Beverly Hills" and 90210 are equal sins on the magic front.

For the same reasons, that's why it would be: Beverly Hills, Los Angelos County, California, USA, 90210

Re: Put the zip code first

#240

Post by hakfoo »

DHPersonal wrote: post #183

Address entries are the weirdest places of frustration. Business clients want Google Places to make address input easier. This user wants a single ZIP code entry to begin the process. Why is adding one’s own address manually that huge of a hurdle that we have to separate the user from the inputs? If there is one person in the world who should know my address, it’s me: why then put such an effort into building a site…

It's probably a turtles-all-the-way-down problem.

Three or four blank lines is probably the least hostile and most foolproof way to handle addresses.

But the cart software has distinct address-line-1, address-line-2, city, state, zip-code fields.

And the CRM they export into has similar fields.

Probably to be compatible with some further pipeline of tooling going back decades.

I suspect if you go back far enough it ends at pre-/semi-computerized data processing systems which would print addressed envelopes and documents from stacks of Hollerith cards, using extremely rigid fixed formats that were probably fine for their original buyers, likely US-centric and old enough that they were just getting it to the right city and letting the local postman figure out the nonsense on the envelope.

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