When world politics and web design collide
World politics and web design are two unlikely bed-fellows, but if you have used a web-form with a list of countries, or are living in a “semi-recognised” country (for example, The Isle of Man), you will appreciate the issues. Add to the equation the complications of postage, taxes, sanctions and embargos and it can get quite complicated.
Defining countries can be a sensitive issue, with some countries not being recognised by others and local usages and naming styles also causing problems. That is why we lean towards the formal when we work with lists of countries. We use accepted international standards as a source for our lists, which allows us to take a widely accepted view of country names around the world, hopefully without causing offence.
This list presents us with problems, however. Consider the screenshot below from a list of countries for a large site we are currently working on:
'Leaking' drop down list with wide country names
The first problem is the large amount of horizontal space used by the entries, which causes the drop down list to be expanded artifically. This makes it difficult to fit in some designs. This is highlighted by the purple arrow. This width is determined automatically by the longest entry in the list, in this case “MACEDONIA, THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF”. Far be it from us to assert our right to change a country’s name, we need to hit a compromise. This can either be changing the design to accommodate the wider data or - at a last resort - changing the data (in this case, we could use the commonly accepted “FYR” abbreviation).
I was asked why all the countries are in capitals. “Well, that’s how they come in from the original standard”, I replied. The thing is, capitals require wider horizontal space and it does feel like you’re shouting. I imagine the ISO standard is capitalised to avoid another thorny issue; what exactly should be capitalised in a country name? While “Macedonia, The former Yogoslav republic of” may be technically correct, it may not be politically correct. We decided to stay with the CAPS. Another reason to stick with the CAPS is because users are traditionally used to seeing country lists in capitals. When was the last time you entered your country and it was lower-case? By retaining capitals, we build on this albeit uncomfortable convention.
Semi-recognised Countries and transient states are also difficult to navigate. The world is constantly changing and countries are born, extinguished and forgotten even in modern politics. On The Isle of Man, we are in a position that is little understood away from its shores. While we are a crown dependency, and a country, we are not regarded as a sovereign state. So, we tend to be lumped into “United Kingdom”, even though technically, we’re not actually in the UK. Web users on the Isle of Man have become used to going for “United Kingdom”, as opposed for hunting down the Isle of Man within the “I”s.
I remember this being particularly contentious when I was working for an e-Commerce web-site provider. While we should provide “Isle of Man” as a country option for reasons of correctness, postage, etc., we couldn’t rely on that data being correct because Isle of Man users may just be used to using “United Kingdom”. If we avoid including “Isle of Man” from the selection, we might have incorrect data, but at least it isn’t inconsistent.
It can be a minefield, as you are always keen to avoid offending your users at the very least in trying to create a positive web experience. It’s also important to lean towards convention when designing user experiences, as your experience is only one in hundreds that may have used and millions on the wider internet.
