ZIP codes don't uniquely identify cities / towns. (Or, in fact, States). Not to mention, they certainly don't work globally...
Put the zip code first
41–50 of 330 posts
Re: Put the zip code first
#42US-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.
Yup, the second sentence in the post is incorrect.
> From those 5 characters you can determine the city, the state, and the country.
You can't infer the country from a postcode.
Re: Put the zip code first
#43I definitely agree in principle. But - without doxxing myself - I input my zip and the city is not correct. It’s a very close neighboring suburb (where the boundaries are definitely blurry) but it’s not the city on all the legal documents for my current house.
Legal address doesn't matter for mail, and all of this stuff is about mail/shipping. This includes billing addresses. I would have assumed that you knew that. I know people whose ZIP code belongs to a neighboring town (because mail works that way) and it basically becomes their de-facto address.
Some areas have duplicate, or very similar street names (ie, 'ave' vs. 'street') I don't think its that much of an ask that a website lets you enter your address correctly
Re: Put the zip code first
#44If you’re going to ask for a country, ask for it first.
Zip codes repeat across countries, you know.
Re: Put the zip code first
#45This sound like it's more efficient - however... (and ignoring the US specific stuff)
Even in forms where I've designed this it breaks my flow as a user. I'm used to suburb state postcode order (I'm an Aussie). It's how we were taught to write the address in school. It's been a pattern for a long time, and the reversal of the fields slows my brain down.
IMHO The better user experience isn't changing the order of the fields. It's honouring auto-complete so the user doesn't have to enter this data in the first place.
Re: Put the zip code first
#46The US Postal service has some of the most complex software in existence, including some of the most advanced handwriting recognition ever developed.
The fact that mail gets to its destination when it does, as soon as it does, with overall minimal error, is nothing short of amazing.
But some web dev blogger has it All. Figured. Out.
Right.
I'm sure your way is better.
This is big "I could code it in a weekend" HN energy.
The USPS owes you a debt of gratitude for buying a snarky domain and bringing this to their attention after 63 years.
Re: Put the zip code first
#47My postal code is 2200 (København N), and that form didn't do anything for me.
All zip codes are postal codes, but not all postal codes are zip codes.
At my last gig, this sentence was said a lot, and people kept confusing the two, both in code and in daily speech, so maybe colloquially they are the same :)
Re: Put the zip code first
#48Um a lot of US zip codes map to multiple cities. Some even to multiple states. If you build a picker for city/state this works fine but your premise is easily refuted if you look at the data!
Zip codes map to postal routes, not polygons
Re: Put the zip code first
#49US-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.
Yeah, post codes are a huge pit of an implementation. Each country has their own way of presenting and formatting them, as well as additional validation rules (e.g. valid postal districts). This should be amazing (and is), but if you maintain such a validator you'll have a continuous stream of bugs where clients were able to make a mistake they shouldn't have been able to (often breaking downstream where it is hard to recover) or where you refuse to accept somebodies very real address and they are very personally upset (rightly so).
That said, the obvious solution is where is prepopulated from geo-ip or browser signals or similar.
Re: Put the zip code first
#50US-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.
Should be titled "Put the Zipcode and country first".
Would be simple enough to have someone type the zip or postal code first, then move the countries that are known to have that zip code to the top of the drop down (still in alphabetical order), and all the other countries below that (also in alphabetical order).
Leave all the fields editable, i.e. the postal code only suggests, ranks, or prepopulates.
Seems like that would handle all the edge cases, including those where a zip code doesn't refer to one and only one city, or where a zip code has changed or been added to a country.