HDI-- Limit Pocket Query to U.S.A

[+banjar1]

Since I often do pocket queries near the US border, it would be nice to limit the list to US-caches only. But I can't find any reference to "US", "United States", "America" in the list of countries.

 

What am I missing?

[+dakboy]

Since I often do pocket queries near the US border, it would be nice to limit the list to US-caches only. But I can't find any reference to "US", "United States", "America" in the list of countries.

 

What am I missing?

You have to select the individual states. Ctrl-click to select multiples.

[+Phetlern]

We had the same problem - no "United States" in the PQ list of countries. This post provides an answer but as this would seem to be an exception (are there any other countries left off the pull down list?) then perhaps a note on the PQ page adjacent to the country selection menu might be helpful.

[+dakboy]

I think Canada works the same way.

[+Team MEMILA]

I think Canada works the same way.

 

Canada is an option to select, which is geographically bigger than the U.S. Even Russia, the largest country in the world geographically, can be selected. Very odd that the U.S. cannot be selected since those larger countries can be.

[+The A-Team]

Canada is an option to select, which is geographically bigger than the U.S. Even Russia, the largest country in the world geographically, can be selected. Very odd that the U.S. cannot be selected since those larger countries can be.

Geographical area isn't the criteria used for that list; it's the number of caches in each country. Russia only has 391 caches in the entire country, while there are single towns in the US that have more caches than that.

[+Team MEMILA]

Canada is an option to select, which is geographically bigger than the U.S. Even Russia, the largest country in the world geographically, can be selected. Very odd that the U.S. cannot be selected since those larger countries can be.

Geographical area isn't the criteria used for that list; it's the number of caches in each country. Russia only has 391 caches in the entire country, while there are single towns in the US that have more caches than that.

 

That's fine and makes sense, but for some use cases it would help. For example, I'd like a pocket query for all caches hidden within the first year of geocaching in the United States. There it would be helpful to select US once rather than 50 individual states. Or, a query for all virtuals. Two groups of caches I focus on. But, I realize I'm unique in that. So ...

 

There are other UI approaches to address this. Let the user pick US and then filter the States section to only list US states. Could be helpful for many queries as the states/provinces list is unwieldy.

 

Or, maintaining current list allow users to add things from one list to another on the right as they select them. Solves the issue of being able to see everything selected and avoid problem of a mis-click that deselects what had been selected.

 

There are many ways to make the UI better suited to the multi-selection issue with states. I run into this all the time because I take many road trips.

[+Ike 13]

There is a bookmark list for caches placed within the first year: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=4ec75c1e-4a73-4d6b-b8ac-0e98ced144ff

 

If you don't want worldwide this one shows US Canada caches placed in 2000: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=4ec75c1e-4a73-4d6b-b8ac-0e98ced144ff

[+Team Taran]

Also you only have to do the tedious selection process once as part of designing a pocket query. Then whenever you need to search U.S, just copy the pq and change parameters as needed.

[+Team MEMILA]

I agree that it's a one time thing for this scenario. My background has been heavily focused on user interface/user experience, so I'm probably a bit overly focused on UI issues.

 

It also comes up for me whenever I plan a multi-state roadtrip. User experience could be improved substantially, but no biggie.