Float the item you guessed to the top. Under than
put USA, under that an alphabetical listing of all the rest of the
countries.
Why this isn't common in forms is beyond me.
If you look at my response at the top of this discussion the reason is that
in test we have carried out :-
So for
Which is why they typically only use maps for the initial selection of a
continent or region
This does not work. When we carried out a Remote study of Academics in every
continenent of the world. We got the following results when the continent /
region was selected first.
See my response
So for example if the person was from the Netherlands, the Netherlands
was placed on the top. Every user still looked all the way down the
list and then spent time in puzzlement in why their country was not
listed under N. It took a long time for them to find the Netherlands
at the top of the
I don't see why you wouldn't put it in both places :-) So
Country:
__
Netherlands
---
A
B
C
D
...
N
Netherlands
O
__
etc.
~ will
I have become death, destroyer of worlds
Please take it one step further than just putting it in both places.
When there are multiple localized names for the country, put them all
in.
I can't tell you his many times I've tried to use keypresses to
navigate a country popup, only to fond it has USA but not United
States, or vice
Why not just a simple old text box with ajax auto-lookup that is robust
enough to:
1. offer a country name in at least 5 different languages;
2. predict the most likely country name and heavily weight that suggestion
first based on iplookup.
I did it with the From and To Airport/City look-up on
On a pure GOMS basis getting the user to type in the country would be far
more efficient, on a key press count. Maybe the solution is to do an AJAX
type auto complete box. With suggestions including the many ways of spelling
each country. (eg. Great Britain, United Kingdom, England, Scotland,
Maps are not commonly used to select countries, and as Jack mentioned
- when used, they are usually to select the continent or region.
I believe that the best solution for users will be to use a classic
drop down list in alphabetical order - using the same language as the
rest of the interface.
It would most likely be very clunky...but how about a graphical
representation in the form of a zoomable map.
It would take away the need for language accessibility, and most
people would at least be able to find their own country on a map.
Combine it with a flag on lower levels of zoom for
Let them type the country in then check it dynamically to see if the
country exists. This will solve the problem, it's the best way.. not
the easiest but the most effective.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
Ok. So put it in both places. ;)
- Original Message -
From: James Page
To: William Brall
Cc: disc...@ixda.org
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 5:29 AM
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
Float the item you guessed to the top. Under than
put
Sorry to disappoint you, but I think a dropdown with 195 country names
is the most convenient way to select the country you live in. I
propose to use the official UN list * of ISO 3166-1 country names in
the same language as the rest of the form **, ordered alphabetically.
My design
Jeff,
We have just done a Remote Usability study where one of the issues was
people selecting their country. The system been tested placed the country
where it thought the user was from at the top of the drop down list of 195
countries. This is a common pattern with sites in America often listing
A common mistake in listing languages for selection is to list them
all in the form designer's native tongue (eg english, french, spanish;
rather than english, francais, espanol). Seeing this post made me
curious about how/if this problem should be addressed in country
listings. It seems
Michael,
In this case language and country are not related.
The language used for the list is the language of the user interface.
In my opinion the list of country names should be in the same language as
the rest of the page. On a French web page the list will start with:
Afghanistan
Afrique du
Thanks for all of the responses so far. Yohan, I'd be very interested in
your multilingual country database - thanks for sharing.
Jeff
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 7:56 AM, Yohan Creemers yo...@ylab.nl wrote:
Michael,
In this case language and country are not related.
The language used for the
Many support sites begin with a map, having the user select the
continent or region first, and then presenting a list of countries. If
a graphical map isn't feasible, you could use two menus: one for
continent/region that then populates the second with a filtered list
of countries.
Hello to the list, hello Jeff.
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Jeff White jwhit...@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for all of the responses so far. Yohan, I'd be very interested in
your multilingual country database - thanks for sharing.
Good default value [1] is your friend here.
IP-address
I don't know what your limitations are, but could you have an
auto-complete feature where the user just starts typing and possible
countries show up?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720
Using a user's IP address to tell you where they are is NOT a good
idea. The proxy will fool you too often.
For accessibility and language issues I would use a graphical map
approach just like Jack suggested. This way even if the language is
different, the user still knows where their country is
Yes, I could. This is the direction I was thinking, but I was curious as to
what other designers are doing or have seen.
Thanks,
Jeff
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 10:10 AM, Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com wrote:
I don't know what your limitations are, but could you have an
auto-complete feature
A rough idea I haven't really thought through yet is a combination of this
and a text form field with autocomplete. You could either click on a country
or start typing. The auto complete suggestions would then correlate to
highlighted countries on the map.
Thanks,
Jeff
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at
Well, I don't really see too many maps on web forms...but, it depends
I guess.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720
Welcome to the
I think the challenge of maps is trying to select a small country in size.
Try selecting Monte Carlo, the Vatican, St Kits and Nevis, and even slightly
larger ones like Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Montenegro, Bosnia, Benin,
Togo.
James
2008/12/30 Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com
Well, I don't
Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
To: Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com
Cc: disc...@ixda.org
Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 2:17 PM
-Inline Attachment Follows-
I think the challenge of maps is trying to select a small country in size. Try
selecting Monte Carlo, the Vatican, St Kits
On Dec 30, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Allison Walker wrote:
Yes, tiny countries would be difficult. I think you'd need a pretty
big map, unless you can do some type of fish-eye selection like the
Dock on the Mac.
Which is why they typically only use maps for the initial selection of
a continent
I like how google does it for their site. In that they guess right 99%
of the time and give you a way to change it if they are wrong.
You can guess, based on things like IP and other factors. Where the
user is. And no matter the context, this is the best default.. Unless
you run a service that
There have been previous discussions on this topic, one here:
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=23593
But they haven't really focused on what I'm after: your favorite examples
for having a person specify what country they live in, in the context of a
web form. Anyone come across a particularly
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