15 Steps To Better Usability (and Happier Users)

This strikes me as one of those things that’s a bit like the “content before navigation improves accessibility” theory that was doing the rounds a few years ago. It’s one of those things that could help people, but actually probably won’t, because (in most countries that I know of, at least) people are completely habituated into writing their address along the lines of
1 Alphabet Street Town State P05T COD3
and so anything that breaks that mould is going to require more cognitive processing for them to realise that they are being asked for the information in reverse than it will save them in workstream by having the information asked for in a more streamlined and personalised way.

And the programming that would be required to get an internationally compatible form that recognises address formats in even a dozen major countries is going to be a headache.

A lot of websites in the UK that are aimed at a UK audience will ask for your postcode first, because that typically pinpoints your address to within about 50 properties, and then all you have to do is pick your house number or name off a list and you’re there, which massively reduces both the effort needed from the site user and the risk of people making a mistake when typing their address in (or the age old problem of people who insist on not using the post office’s preferred form of their address). But to generalise that to more than one country? That’s a whole lot more work. I’m not saying it can’t be done, of course it can, but you have to look at whether it is worth your while to do it.