I released today my new book: “Better data quality from your web form - Effective international name and address Internet data collection”. The good news is that it is completely free to download and use, so go to http://www.grcdi.nl/book4.htm to download it. Spread the word!
Web forms are a source of immense and continuous frustration for many people as the forms almost universally fail to take any account of variations in personal name and addressing conventions used throughout the world, so that customers have to struggle to clear the hurdles placed in their way by the forms. Reports suggest that almost 9 out of 10 customers have problems when attempting to carry out online transactions, and the result is a huge loss of income from lost custom paired with the collection of very poor quality data.
This e-book (in Acrobat pdf format), which is free to download and use, attempts to fill the gap left by most works about usability by concentrating on the experience that your international customers have with your form, and how it affects them, their relationship with you and your data quality.
This has been done using many examples and without going into too much depth about the idiosyncrasies of international personal names and addresses, and avoids technical discussions – links to get more information are provided where appropriate in the text.
Any feedback is most welcome.
Enjoy!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
New product releases at GRC Database Information
We've been busy in March preparing updates for most of our products. These include:
- an update to the Global Sourcebook for Address Data Management
- a new release for many of our data tables: place name/postal codes, address elements, job titles and others
- a new version of our address parsing, standardisation and formatting software GRCTools.
More information on our website.
- an update to the Global Sourcebook for Address Data Management
- a new release for many of our data tables: place name/postal codes, address elements, job titles and others
- a new version of our address parsing, standardisation and formatting software GRCTools.
More information on our website.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Now you have your postal code system, how about telling us about it?
My attention was caught today by an online discussion here hosted by the English-language Vietnam News, about introducing a postal code system to Vietnam to resolve the problem of duplicate thoroughfare names within cities.
Of interest to me is that Vietnam has had a postal code system for years, updating it from a 5-digit code to a 6-digit code in 2004. Clearly, though the system has been designed, it has not been implemented to the extent of informing the residents.
This is not as unusual as you might think. Some countries - Bahrain and Nicaragua spring to mind - are coy about their postal code systems, even to the extent of requesting people not to use them because sorting continues to be done manually. I've had people from Costa Rica swear blind to me that their country has no postal code system, even after I've pointed them towards the postal website describing it. Clearly, whilst some countries are happy to design postal code systems, the expense of implementing them - mechanised sorting systems, information dissemination and so on, tends to put a brake on following the projects through.
Of interest to me is that Vietnam has had a postal code system for years, updating it from a 5-digit code to a 6-digit code in 2004. Clearly, though the system has been designed, it has not been implemented to the extent of informing the residents.
This is not as unusual as you might think. Some countries - Bahrain and Nicaragua spring to mind - are coy about their postal code systems, even to the extent of requesting people not to use them because sorting continues to be done manually. I've had people from Costa Rica swear blind to me that their country has no postal code system, even after I've pointed them towards the postal website describing it. Clearly, whilst some countries are happy to design postal code systems, the expense of implementing them - mechanised sorting systems, information dissemination and so on, tends to put a brake on following the projects through.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
For the love of web forms!
It may seem to you, faithful reader, that I have become a little obsessed with web data entry forms lately. Apart from being the front end of company databases that we crash into most regularly, it is also a reflection of the fact that I am currently working on a book about .... web data entry forms!
But I am not alone in this obsession. My colleagues across at the Data Value Talk blog have decided to try to think positively and to collect some examples of GOOD web data entry screens. If they get enough, they'll open up a competition for the best examples.
So, if you come across any well-designed (or badly designed!) web data entry forms, take a screen dump and scoot along to the Data Value Talk blog - I, for one, look forward to seeing them.
But I am not alone in this obsession. My colleagues across at the Data Value Talk blog have decided to try to think positively and to collect some examples of GOOD web data entry screens. If they get enough, they'll open up a competition for the best examples.
So, if you come across any well-designed (or badly designed!) web data entry forms, take a screen dump and scoot along to the Data Value Talk blog - I, for one, look forward to seeing them.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Stop. Step back. Think.
Has creating web input forms become automatic? Does anybody ever test the forms they put online? Does anybody ever stop, take a step back, and think things through?
Yesterday, faced with yet another clone form expecting of me a typical United States' address, I came to the inevitable drop down requesting (no, demanding!) my state. The company gave no option to clear this field, nor to choose a non-US variant, so, as they had kindly defaulted to Alabama, I moved on.
For the next field, country, I chose "Netherlands". And look what happened:
Those who know me and my work will know that I have hammered on for years about making web forms dynamic, and that input fields should change on the basis of country and language. But why (oh why?), when a company follows this mantra, are the fields that cause this dynamic change ALWAYS added AFTER the fields that they change? Is it a conspiracy to annoy the customer? To make the customer work at their very hardest in order to buy the products?
Or is somebody just not thinking things through?
Yesterday, faced with yet another clone form expecting of me a typical United States' address, I came to the inevitable drop down requesting (no, demanding!) my state. The company gave no option to clear this field, nor to choose a non-US variant, so, as they had kindly defaulted to Alabama, I moved on.
For the next field, country, I chose "Netherlands". And look what happened:
Those who know me and my work will know that I have hammered on for years about making web forms dynamic, and that input fields should change on the basis of country and language. But why (oh why?), when a company follows this mantra, are the fields that cause this dynamic change ALWAYS added AFTER the fields that they change? Is it a conspiracy to annoy the customer? To make the customer work at their very hardest in order to buy the products?
Or is somebody just not thinking things through?
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Data Quality: Perception versus Reality
A new white paper, "Data Quality: Perception versus Reality", by Graham Rhind and sponsored by Capscan Ltd, reporting on the results of a data quality survey, is available for download here
Monday, December 29, 2008
BBC resurrects Serbia and Montenegro
For a country that lasted only existed for a few years, Serbia & Montenegro has real staying power! In an online news report on the BBC News website from 26th December 2008, the BBC used a map of Serbia & Montenegro in a report instead of just Serbia.
To be fair, the image was corrected a few hours later:
but it does leave me wondering how long it will be before these errors are no longer being made. Perhaps a bloody war is required to force change into people's consciousness?
To be fair, the image was corrected a few hours later:
but it does leave me wondering how long it will be before these errors are no longer being made. Perhaps a bloody war is required to force change into people's consciousness?
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