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Put the zip code first

zipcodefirst.com

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Re: Put the zip code first

#251

Post by Dylan16807 »

awesome_dude wrote: post #239
Dylan16807 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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

Nobody sends packages where the destination is an entire city. If someone gives me an address inside Yonkers, it'll have the zip code in the address. I've never had to look up a zip code in my life.

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

Which reasons? That has nothing to do with magic numbers, except that a 'magic full mailing address' is still bad, you don't shove that into the middle of your code either. If you're looking at the "made a typo" reason then that's where showing the address after putting in the zip code will give you the same verification but faster.

Re: Put the zip code first

#252

Post by aunderscored »

jsLavaGoat wrote: post #249
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #10

US-centric. I typed a Mexico postal code (it’s five digits) and got routed to somewhere in Maine. So - yeah the whole “I can tell you’re in the US just by the zip code” premise is entirely flawed.

Yes, it is US-centric. You all act like that many commercial websites are just like automatically doing international business. I am not even allowed to do business out of my state. I don't even need that filled in. You can see my website anywhere, but you can't be my client unless you're in my state. So I don't care. Any company able to do business in multiple jurisdictions, well, that's just the kind of extra thing…

The problem is this reduces usability for others. Yes, there are many local to a country sites, but there are also large scale global ones. In both cases, you're not really gaining anything other than some clever autocomplete that could be far more precise if the site offered the correct fields so that whatever autocomplete tooling I use can put the data in for me.

The page itself specifically says "and country", however that too doesn't work. Other non us countries may have the same postal codes, or in my case mine is 4 digits, and I had to figure out that "oh, this is us only and it doesn't work at all for me", which was just entirely a waste of time.

Re: Put the zip code first

#253

Post by awesome_dude »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #251
awesome_dude wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> What's the 5 digits for Yonkers New York (edited because I originally had NYC) Nobody sends packages where the destination is an entire city. If someone gives me an address inside Yonkers, it'll have the zip code in the address. I've never had to look up a zip code in my life. > For the same reasons, that's why it would be: Beverly Hills, Los Angelos County, California, USA, 90210 Which reasons? That has nothing to…

Heh, you should take a minute to look the answer up -

ZIP Codes 10701, 10702 (post office), 10703–10705, 10707 (shared with Tuckahoe, NY), 10708 (shared with Bronxville, NY), 10710, 10583 (shared with Scarsdale, NY)

Re: Put the zip code first

#254

Post by pauliusjac »

We tried this on one of our e-commerce sites and it mostly worked. But we had to scrap it once we started expanding internationally.

On a personal note, please just let my browser autofill my address.

Re: Put the zip code first

#256

Post by Charon77 »

In Japanese websites this is pretty much the norm. Govt, bank, marketplace, you name it. fills the address until the block, where you'll need to fill the rest of the numbers until your house address / room number

Re: Put the zip code first

#258

Post by its-summertime »

jsLavaGoat wrote: post #249
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #10

US-centric. I typed a Mexico postal code (it’s five digits) and got routed to somewhere in Maine. So - yeah the whole “I can tell you’re in the US just by the zip code” premise is entirely flawed.

Yes, it is US-centric. You all act like that many commercial websites are just like automatically doing international business. I am not even allowed to do business out of my state. I don't even need that filled in. You can see my website anywhere, but you can't be my client unless you're in my state. So I don't care. Any company able to do business in multiple jurisdictions, well, that's just the kind of extra thing…

From the site: "scroll through 200+ countries to find United States" is talking about an international form

Re: Put the zip code first

#259

Post by nottorp »

YokoZar wrote: post #11

The author complains about country selector drop-downs as part of the address flow, but if you're collecting zip codes you are already assuming United States. I don't think there's a country-inferer from completely generic postal code tool out there yet, is there?

> if you're collecting zip codes you are already assuming United States

From outside the US: I always thought "zip code" is just what you USers call a postal code. I only found out it's a trademark today, from this HN discussion.

So most people outside the US will see "zip code" and think "oh, they mean postal code but they have this weird term for it".

Re: Put the zip code first

#260

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

collinmanderson wrote: post #179
jcrawfordor wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS doesn't care; each ZIP code has a single preferred city name and a list of acceptable alternate city names to account for cases in which a ZIP code spans multiple cities. However, USPS's address validation will prefer to use the preferred city name for the ZIP regardless of whether the recipient actually lives within the boundaries of that city. That's because USPS has opted to organize addressing entirely aroun…

I agree using the preferred city name works just fine for USPS, though maybe not for UPS/Fedex. What I want to know is: Why isn't this preferred city+state mapping dataset for zip codes publicly available from USPS? It would be like 40kb of data for the entire thing. Why is this not public domain from the US Government? Edit: or is this what I'm looking for (the "Physical City", "Physical State" columns? https://post…

That's not nearly as good as Canada's H0H 0H0.
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