

The 3 Field Shopping Cart Web Form - mildweed
http://voltagecreative.com/articles/primary-information-ux-minification/

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Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for a zip code to be shared by more than one
town, city, or municipality. <http://bit.ly/e6mOs5>

So while you could use this system to make an educated guess, you'd want to be
very careful about getting confirmation before using the address, and that
could defeat the original purpose of streamlining the data entry process.

\--edit--

It might actually be uncommon, but I think you still need to take it into
consideration.

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codebaobab
From the point of view of the Postal Service, there is nothing to take into
consideration. A zip code uniquely identifies a geographical area (for the
purposes of mail delivery) and it does not matter if that area crosses
municipal, city or county boundaries. When a zip code does cross boundaries,
the Postal Service picks one city that it uses as the "Actual" name for that
zip code--even though a bunch of addresses in that zip code clearly fall in a
different city! This is the city name that gets returned if you do a lookup or
address verification. The post office is well aware that other cities might
lie in that geographic area and accepts those city names as well. For example,
follow the link below and enter 28451.

    
    
      http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.jsp
    

It is true that it might confuse the user if you auto-populate the city name,
but I think that in practice it wouldn't be much of a problem. If you live in
a split zip code and your city's name is not the Postal Service's "Actual"
name, then you are probably already used to receiving _lots_ of mail with that
other city's name on it. For example: almost all bulk mail will use the
"Actual" city name.

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HeyLaughingBoy
Living in exactly this situation, I can concur that there's nothing confusing
about it.

My zip code is shared with one actual city about 10 miles from my house and at
least two unincorporated rural townships. You could put a completely wrong
city (and I often get mail with the city listed as Minneapolis, which is about
45 miles away) and it would barely merit raising an eyebrow. My mail will
still get here on time.

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mbesto
The system in the UK pretty much already does this and is ingenious.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdom>

For example this functionality is pretty much available on any UK e-commerce
site:

[http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-
connect/CraftyClicks/...](http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-
connect/CraftyClicks/extension/1920/uk-postcode-address-finder)

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djhomeless
As pointed out by mbesto, the UK system is pretty slick, and could be refined
down to just two fields, however it would require breaking the standard flow
of address input forms.

With a street number, and a zip/postal code, you can get Street Name, City,
and State in one fell swoop.

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lftl
If anyone actually knew their 9 digit zip in the US you'd get the same

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joshfinnie
There is a lot of cart web forms that just have a check box asking if your
shipping address is the same as your billing address, isn't that easier to
implement? Not sure the added vaule of seeing it "copy" from billing to
shipping...

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wmeredith
I think you're missing the main point, which may or may not be the fault of
the article, that you can auto fill (secondary info) city and state by using
(primary info) zip code.

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joshfinnie
Definitely missed that. 1) Is that US centric? 2) If no, why doesn't everyone
do that?

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wiseleo
I pull this data from the user's PayPal account.

Zero fields :) is what I absolutely strive for in my UX.

Other than that, I also have logic in place to auto-insert your city and
state. That's just a waste of time for the user and I honestly couldn't care
less since all I really need is their Zip.

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megamark16
How about Facebook Connect integration that pulls your address from your
Facebook profile? ;-)

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beoba
That would make me shop elsewhere.

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megamark16
Hence the wink. Sometimes ease of use just isn't worth it.

