Find my address by postcode/house number

[htmlandbacon]

What

Improve the postcode look up as shown in GDS design system ( https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/addresses/)

Example:

Why

Avoid giving the user a long list of addresses.

Anything else

Services

• Budgeting loans

Original issue information 19 June 2019 @htmlandbacon https://github.com/dwp/design-examples/issues/41

[htmlandbacon]

Assumption is we would be better placed to do something like this (ignore the content)

Step 1.

Step 2.

[htmlandbacon]

So above is kinda suggested flows.

I've not marked any back links as that is gonna get messy.

Demo with sample postcode data https://address-lookup-demo.herokuapp.com/address/complete/post-code

[cathydutton]

The Fish service in Defra uses a very similar pattern to this

[htmlandbacon]

@cathydutton Linky link? Be great to see what I have missed/the differences!

[9124ss]

Step 1. Should have an option to go to straight to manual entry: in case lookup service unavailable/postcode not known
Step 2. If address is similar to the one needed, there should be a way to amend it as necessary rather than having to completely manually enter it

[cathydutton]

@htmlandbacon sorry...

[htmlandbacon]

Step 1. Should have an option to go to straight to manual entry: in case lookup service unavailable/postcode not known
Step 2. If address is similar to the one needed, there should be a way to amend it as necessary rather than having to completely manually enter it

Interesting! Have you got an example of this in a service?

[leahsmith1104]

We're just in the process of implementing the following:

@htmlandbacon It's pretty much the same as yours, we went for 'my address is not listed' as a radio rather than allowing them to enter their address manually on the same page (like @cathydutton's version), as it stopped them from selecting a radio and being able to select 'enter address manually'. Not sure if anyone has any thoughts around what we've done, however no issues came out of test.

We also have an example of a long list of radios, for example if the building number specified and postcode is a block of flats, then it will return a large number of postcodes, this is what that would look like. Modern postcodes have a maximum of 15 dwellings to each individual postcode, in some historic instances there can be more, but we believe it is rare.

[simoneduca]

I've developed @leahsmith1104 flow and just wanted to add something I've found in the process. The prototype screenshots above shows address lookup results formatted in some sort of title-case way. But the postcode lookup service we are using returns address in all caps

e.g. FLAT 2, 17 LONSDALE STREET, KINGSTON UPON HULL, HULL, HU3 6PA

which may be quite difficult to read. Guidance on capitalisation points out only large amounts of text raise accessibility concerns, so addresses should be fine. However, some addresses can be pretty long,

e.g. TURBINE MOTOR WORKS LTD, HANGAR 2, UPWOOD AIR PARK RAMSEY ROAD, RAMSEY, BURY, HUNTINGDON, PE26 2RA.

So, I set out to find a reliable way of turning all caps into title casing (except from postcode). After chatting with a few devs and designers, it quickly appeared that even the best results would not be reliable. This is the closest I got to a good standard.

Ultimately the team decided to just leave addresses in all caps.

[steven-borthwick]

There were some issues with the "Property Number or name" field in user research.

• 7/7 non-UK participants entered the street name in addition to the property number
• One UK participant in usability testing entered their house name only, which is the expected behaviour
• Our hypothesis is that using name is prompting non-UK participants to enter their whole address, as ‘house name’ is not widely recognised.
• Nobody questioned use of the word ‘Property’ in ’Property number or name

Needs further research.

[htmlandbacon]

There were some issues with the "Property Number or name" field in user research.

• 7/7 non-UK participants entered the street name in addition to the property number
• One UK participant in usability testing entered their house name only, which is the expected behaviour
• Our hypothesis is that using name is prompting non-UK participants to enter their whole address, as ‘house name’ is not widely recognised.
• Nobody questioned use of the word ‘Property’ in ’Property number or name

Needs further research.

Oh, interesting, is there a td-lr to what this was against?

[edwardhorsford]

This came up in conversation on slack today.

Sharing this old video of a prototype by @joelanman

The styles are now a bit out of date, but it was trying to fix some of the issues of native selects whilst maintaining some of the advantages. These days I think it could possibly be started with the accessible autocomplete and showAllValues acting as a better dropdown.

[joelanman]

Thanks @edwardhorsford some of the issues with dropdowns I was trying to fix:

• standard, predictable design. Native dropdowns have different experiences, with iOS being particularly hard to use in research, being a 3D roller
• it doesn't obscure other page elements by overlaying like native dropdowns - it pushes them down
• it doesn't collapse when clicking off the dropdown - something people sometimes do accidentally in research

But it has the advantage over radios that expanding and collapsing means users more easily access the other elements on the page (help text, links, continue button)

iOS dropdown: