Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Compare # of entries to submit zip code Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:00 pm
Hi All-
Currently, I use my Vz phone for navigation. Getting tired of it and have been looking for a GPS that will stay out of my way. When playing w/ the various selection at CircuitCity I bacame very annoyed with almost all of them.
My goal: I would like users of as many different brands / models to list the steps taken to enter a zip code into a gps.
If I want to go to Westville, Co, how many things do I have to modify before I can enter the ZIPCODE?
example1: Power => WhereTo => 54668?
example2: Power => Navigate To => Select State => A-L or M -Z => Scroll to State => Select Town or ZipCode.
Obviously, if one had to go thru example2 everytime the gps would probably end up in the trash. But from what I could tell, each manufacturer is closer to example2 than to 1.
Is anyone willing to post the steps for their unit?
Before you bother too far with this do note that trying to find an address based on zipcode entry may return invalid results in many fast-growing areas. There have been several zipcodes added or boundaries moved in the past few years here and I honestly don't have a lot of faith in zipdata in the mapset. Nor do I know anyone in the States that depends on zipcode searches. Postal Codes are more of a European use (or perhaps Canada)
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Fri Jul 25, 2008 12:19 pm
Mainly to reduce keystrokes as much as possible. I quite frequently know where I am when I get to a destination city, but don't know how to best get to 'there' from 'here'.
The units I played with all wanted something like 'Navigate to' => (list of cities show up) => hit some button to get out of Connecticut => Enter something else to show list of new States => scroll or hit another button to allow direct input => etc
At that point i was on to the next unit.
Basically, I do not want my GPS to mimic Windows Menu Systems - Menus buried within menus within menus followed by 'Advanced Options' with more menus.
Mainly to reduce keystrokes as much as possible. I quite frequently know where I am when I get to a destination city, but don't know how to best get to 'there' from 'here'.
If you just enter the zip code however, you might end up on the "wrong" side of town from where you are trying to go. The time you might save by just entering a zip code versus a full address will be lost in the time it takes you to drive from the point the GPS picks in that zip code to your actual destination. A zipcode destination isn't a "fuzzy" location where it just takes you to the closest point to where you are-- it will try to get you to what it considers the center.
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:10 pm
Tim wrote:
If you just enter the zip code however, you might end up on the "wrong" side of town from where you are trying to go. The time you might save by just entering a zip code versus a full address will be lost in the time it takes you to drive from the point the GPS picks in that zip code to your actual destination. A zipcode destination isn't a "fuzzy" location where it just takes you to the closest point to where you are-- it will try to get you to what it considers the center.
brb.. (I am wondering how right you are. DangRabbit.
Hi Tim,
sorry about the delay..
I think in my limited experience, I have used or wanted to use some sort of gps for longer trips. It's hard to get to the wrong side of St. Paul from Philly. I'm looking for: from 10th & Market 19513, do I backtrack to 95N or go forward to the NE ext of the Pa tnpk? Then which highway to i take thru the next 5 states. When I get to 84, since I know where I am, i'll probably turn the gps off. So, to enter 3rd Ave NE, Dinkytown, Mn, all while waiting between each entry for the software to catch up, is frustrating and what I would like to avoid. Let me just enter 55414 and be done.
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:16 pm
Tim wrote:
Can we get an idea of why you are using a zipcode as a destination?
a zipcode is the smallest 'unique' identifier. there is more than one 'Gloucester' in the country, more than one 'Main St.', but only one 08093. by entering the zip, i can skip entering the state. any list of choices presented is going to be very small, whereas entering a state creates a list of 10,000 towns. entering a street name creates a list of 15 states.
if i start with a zip, enter a street, the only question left is house #.
i guess i am trying to say that I can get 99.9% of anywhere, with a zip and a street #. so i'd rather enter 2 items than more than 2 items.
the gps that gets me to where i can enter the zip code the soonest is the one in which i am most interested.
Okay... I see now. So you are actually going to enter a street into the destination, but you just don't want to enter type the city... just the zipcode-- and after you will enter the street. Do I have that right?
If so, you can add 'navigate to zip code' as a 'quick menu' item on the newer TomTom devices. This means that directly after turning on the device a menu will be (permanently) superimposed on the map display. One tap on that button you add will take you to the zipcode field. So the steps would be 1) power on, 2) tap quick menu button 3) type zipcode.
One caveat to that though... is that the search defaults to looking in the last state you were using. So if the last state you searched in was New York and you type '90064' you won't get any matches.
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:09 pm
Tim wrote:
Okay... I see now. So you are actually going to enter a street into the destination, but you just don't want to enter type the city... just the zipcode-- and after you will enter the street. Do I have that right?
Exactly.
Tim wrote:
So if the last state you searched in was New York and you type '90064' you won't get any matches.
and that's exactly the type of nonsense I would like to avoid. How hard would it be to search a larger table for the zipcode entered. even do two searches - last sate 1st. no match? whole country. not hard to implement. but missing none the less...
the only device that didn't seem to default to 'Last state' was a magellan. but they were pretty far down my unknowledgable (meaning i can't back up why) list: Garmin / TomTom, Navigone, maybe magellan, maybe even something else (Dash?).
i live in nj. work in ct. play football on fields all over De and Pa. i just want to get where i'm going. i certainly do not want to hit a back button to then scroll thru a list of states. that's why i'm frustrated... when i do a google search on zip code 90064, I'm not asked 'what state?' or told 'no match' because i looked up circuit city in Ct. why can't the gps behave the same?
I see what you are syaing-- but I guess I respectfully disagree that it is much of an issue. To get to the state field and tap on the first couple of letters and select a state will take what... less than 3 seconds on average? Let's say if it did a proper zip lookup across all states it saved you 5 seconds on each trip. Say you do two trips per day, five days per week. Over the course of one year that is perhaps 45 minutes of time. How long have you spent looking for devices that offer that feature at Circuit City and in this forum? Probably more than the 45 minutes you would save over the course of the year.
I totally agree it is stupid that GPS devices can't figure out for their own what state a zipcode is in, but I believe the amount of time saved is negligible.
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:48 pm
Tim wrote:
Say you do two trips per day, five days per week. Over the course of one year that is perhaps 45 minutes of time. How long have you spent looking for devices that offer that feature at Circuit City and in this forum? Probably more than the 45 minutes you would save over the course of the year.
I totally agree it is stupid that GPS devices can't figure out for their own what state a zipcode is in, but I believe the amount of time saved is negligible.
I don't know that it is necessarily about saving time. i think i would just be frustrated repeatedly doing steps that I thought unnecessary.
My other thought is 'How many steps do I have to explain to my wife?' and then 'On how many possible different screens can she make a mistake?'
that's why none of my cars have AC, power windows or doors. AM radio only. etc. I hate options. (no. i'm not serious) but i do i like simple. Zip => street #. done.
thanks again for your thoughts / feedback. as I do not own any gps, it helps to form ideas of likes / dislikes via discussion(s) with those who know. i appreciate your time.
My question would be how you are determining the proper zipcode to begin with and how much time is that taking? Additionally there are posts here indicating that at least in some cases the mapset zipcode does not match what the poster believes the zipcode actually is. Examples came from both California and Manhattan. Just because you have a zipcode you believe is right doesn't necessarily mean it will find a matching street and number in a search. IMO, there's a much greater liklihood of "no match" lookups if you restrict the search to a particular zipcode.
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 8 Location: currently very lost
Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:20 pm
I suppose I would ask someone for an address.
if i enter 1313 mockingbird Ln 19713 OR 19713 1313 mockingbird, i would expect to get where i am going.
i'd like to avoid 'No Match' type msgs bc i didn't first jump thru hoops.
zip str # done. then if confusion exists 'Error. No Match Found' would be expected.
I guess that is why i created this thread. I'd like to define the 'hoops' that I have to jump thru before I can complete the simplest of tasks.
Tim: You said that you could create a custom menu item w/ TT1, but that it defaulted to the last state searched. Is there a way to override that default?
Even when I do a Mapquest (which isn't much anymore!), I've rarely if ever used the zip code. Unless you know zip codes off the top of your head or carry a USPS reference around with you, I do agree with gatorguy that it would take more time to find a zip code.
As Tim said, it's a simple step to bring up the state on TomTom. When you start entering the city, TomTom brings up a list starting with the letters you have so most times you don't even have to type in the full city.
And you can type partial city or street names on Garmin and Magellan as well. Suspect you can do so on most of the current PND's. Addy entry rarely takes me more than 30 seconds or so. At least on the Garmin 7x0's, you also have a "folder" to tap that includes all recently searched cities, so no need to re-enter them.
Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 88 Location: Near N 43° 00.924 W088° 14.075
Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:44 pm
It would seem that in order to find the zip code, one would have to know the city and at least the approximate address of the street. You're already 75% there to put in the whole address. Another short cut would be to go to an intersection and the cross street would be "Any" at least in the case of my TomTom 930. My Garmin smartphone software won't do that. In fact all my Garmin's have close to useless intersection function, I've not tried any of their car GPS units other than my smartphone which does a very good job otherwise.
As you indicate that you do not presently have a GPS, I submit that these entries will become much easier with a little use and practice. But no air conditioning or power windows!?
It would seem that in order to find the zip code, one would have to know the city and at least the approximate address of the street. You're already 75% there to put in the whole address. Another short cut would be to go to an intersection and the cross street would be "Any" at least in the case of my TomTom 930. My Garmin smartphone software won't do that. In fact all my Garmin's have close to useless intersection function, I've not tried any of their car GPS units other than my smartphone which does a very good job otherwise.
As you indicate that you do not presently have a GPS, I submit that these entries will become much easier with a little use and practice. But no air conditioning or power windows!?
Didnt mean to say hit DONE - I atually just tapped the screen to be done (i think it actually had something named "anywhere" at top of list and I just tapped a few times. (I tend to just tap away sometimes I have no idea how i get to places).
My mistake though was that the only zipcode I knew by heart was in state I was - so I didn't realize you had to also choose state.
To me thats no problem - you start spelling and you get a list of states. Although I have to admit - I'm surprised that zine zipcode is a menu choice, I'm surprised it doesnt skip asking for state. I suspect that TomTom would fix the SW to do that if they realized it didn't.
I think the biggest interface gripe with some people is some GPSs without qwerty keyboards. ( Sorry a personal peeve.) But on my Garmin 660 it's state > city > address. I've never found it that hard to navigate thru them. If at the city you type in Min, it may bring up Minneapolis and Minnetonka. You click which one, then enter the street number, then the street name. If your beginning letters also pertain to more than one street variation, and/or Dr, Ct, Ln, etc., it'll bring up a list of them all. Click on the one you want and you're good to go.
I think the biggest interface gripe with some people is some GPSs without qwerty keyboards. ( Sorry a personal peeve.) But on my Garmin 660 it's state > city > address. I've never found it that hard to navigate thru them. If at the city you type in Min, it may bring up Minneapolis and Minnetonka. You click which one, then enter the street number, then the street name. If your beginning letters also pertain to more than one street variation, and/or Dr, Ct, Ln, etc., it'll bring up a list of them all. Click on the one you want and you're good to go.
That is my one peeve about the Garmin 260, the keyboard is alphabetical.
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:01 pm
Hi. As a Canadian soon going to the US on vacation, I find all this zip code stuff interesting. I've already started to program my Garmin 350 with destination data for my accommodations and other places I plan to go. No offense to any of my good neighbors to the south, but I do find that Canadian postal codes are a more accurate measure for finding destinations than US zip codes are.
In some instances, particularly rural areas, there are no street names just exit numbers from interstates. When enter the state, the zip code instead of the location and touch done, I get a string of street numbers to scroll through. Why would I get a bunch of these when I haven't entered a steet name in the first place? For now, I've just been choosing the first number and touching done again, hoping that would bring me in close proximity to my actual destination.
Most likely I'm doing something wrong. Could someone please enlighten me further on the use of zip codes for searching destinations? There's probably a better procedure on the Garmin that I can't seem to make sense of in the users manual.
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:23 pm
.[/quote]
Are you saying the street actually doesn't have a name-- or just that you don't know what the name is?[/quote]
Tim, I don't know what the street name is...that's why I used a postal code. I do know the town is Sherman, Maine but putting only that in and no postal code, I presume, wouldn't be any better than just the postal code. Hope that doesn't sound too confusing and I can tend to be just that at times...thanks.
Well, you are partially in luck because I know my way around Sherman, Maine. So let's back up a step... if you are trying to enter a destination in Sherman, where in Sherman are you trying to go?
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:17 pm
Tim wrote:
Well, you are partially in luck because I know my way around Sherman, Maine. So let's back up a step... if you are trying to enter a destination in Sherman, where in Sherman are you trying to go?
Katahdin Valley Motel
Exit 264, Interstate 95
PO Box 148
Sherman, Maine 04776
This will be good education on how to handle an address like this without a street named. The above is on their website...thanks for the help.
It isn't the fault of the address that the GPS can't find that address-- there is no address there. I'd call the motel and ask them what their physical street address is. But I'll save you the call if you want, they are at 32 Main St.
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:35 pm
Thanks Tim. That's exactly what I was going to do...call them. Some of these businesses should realize it's 2008 and provide GPS-friendly addresses for potential patrons to find them.
Very grateful for your help. They don't have a 1-800 number so you saved me the cost of a long-distance call.
Thanks Tim. That's exactly what I was going to do...call them. Some of these businesses should realize it's 2008 and provide GPS-friendly addresses for potential patrons to find them.
Yes, it annoys me to no end when I ask a store for their address and they try to give me directions... I don't want the directions, just the address!
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i certainly do not want to hit a back button to then scroll thru a list of states. that's why i'm frustrated... when i do a google search on zip code 90064, I'm not asked 'what state?' or told 'no match' because i looked up circuit city in Ct. 
