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Redesigning the country selector

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Re: Redesigning the country selector

#91

Post by mwexler »

craz wrote: post #57
ibelimb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps adding a geo-ip look up to help weight the results would make this better? None the less this is a huge improvement then a drop-down with every known country.

I've always wondered why more sites don't do this. Even without the fancy auto-complete, just set the default country using a geo-ip lookup.

Double Edged Sword. While many times I am interested in the country I am in, in many cases, I'm getting info for the next country I am going to. It's frustrating to have to change a default box from where I am to where I want to go, or even not notice that it's set wrong. The real question is: how many people do I annoy compared to how many people are helped? If I help most people, and don't annoy my best customers, then that's a great idea. If my site is used by folks to find out info about countries other than their own, then it might turn out to be a bust.

I would say: test it and see.

Re: Redesigning the country selector

#92

Post by afterburner »

raldi wrote: post #87
steadicat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I typed 'ita' and the first option was 'United Kingdom'.

The full name is the United Kingdom of Great Br ITA in and Northern Ireland.

Wow, I think this autocomplete is too smart for its own good.

Re: Redesigning the country selector

#94

Post by skrebbel »

nice idea, but the graceful degradation also needs extra work if usability is the goal. On Opera Mini, for example, it's a text box. The javascript will round-trip to the server, taking several seconds. I'd much much prefer the dropdown. Out of context, i'd not even know what to type into what appears to be just a text field. You could consider this a usability flaw in Opera Mini, but it means a usage drop for many mobile browsers for sure.

Re: Redesigning the country selector

#95

Post by jfruh »

rhplus wrote: post #19
jfruh wrote: post #6

On a similar note, I've always found it kind of amusing/frustrating that forms in the US make you fill out city, state, and zip code, when in fact the zip code indicates a specific city and state. I realize that's a huge database of geolocation data to keep as part of the program, but I wonder if there could be some kind of lookup that goes on behind the scenes and fills in the city and state if the response is quick…

The mapping zip codes to city is not strictly 1:1. I don't have a better source for this, but the description in Wikipedia states: "The Postal Service designates one _default_ place name for each ZIP code... Additional place names may be recognized as _acceptable_ for a certain ZIP code." This means that someone may continue to write their address as Smalltown, EG, 12345, when technically it is Bigtown, EG, 12345. Of…

Hmm, but if I understand correctly how this all works, even if you vote and pay taxes in Smalltown, if Bigtown is the default placename for 12345, the post office will still happily deliver mail to your address even if the envelope says "Bigtown, EG 12345" on it.

Of course, humans care about this stuff more than you can imagine. There was a minor kerfuffle in the Buffalo area a few years ago when a woman bought a house in Lancaster (an upscale suburb) only to find that the default placename for her zip code was Depew (a working-class suburb). She somehow managed to get someone at the newspaper to write a story about her plight, which included a note that her copy of Gourmet Magazine came late because she insisted on putting "Lancaster" in the city name. I'm not sure why that would affect anything unless she was also deliberately giving them the wrong zip code though.

Re: Redesigning the country selector

#96

Post by kbatten »

jisaacstone wrote: post #80
ajankovic wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seams as a minor mistake compared to not be able to type the name of the country in my native language. I guess that is not so obvious to the native English speaking users but it's the required feature if you are considering usability improvement as a goal of redesign.

Yes this is missing the oft-overlooked option of synonyms. There is no reason why the auto-complete cannot have something like this: DE Germany Deutschland

This has alternate spellings (data-alternative-spellings). So you can type America and it will show United States.

Re: Redesigning the country selector

#97

Post by hugh3 »

jgrahamc wrote: post #5

I typed UK. The only option offered was Ukraine. I'd actually much prefer a country selected that was based on geography with a Mac OS X dock-like magnification so I can choose my country easily.

with a Mac OS X dock-like magnification so I can choose my country easily

That's fine if you're in a medium-sized country like the UK. But think of the consequences for the San Marinans, the Andorrans and the Liechtensteinians, who would have to go five levels of zoom in order just to find their country.

Re: Redesigning the country selector

#100

Post by Someone »

jisaacstone wrote: post #80
ajankovic wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seams as a minor mistake compared to not be able to type the name of the country in my native language. I guess that is not so obvious to the native English speaking users but it's the required feature if you are considering usability improvement as a goal of redesign.

Yes this is missing the oft-overlooked option of synonyms. There is no reason why the auto-complete cannot have something like this: DE Germany Deutschland

A reason for not doing that is that it looks ugly to show multiple options for the same country.

Another is that that can be confusing. Suppose I want to enter a country whose spelling/native name I am not sure of, and after a few characters, four options remain, three of which are correct, but I do not know that. That can cause a needless google to find out, say, the difference between Liberia, Libya, and Libië.

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