How Do I Create an Interactive Zip Code Locator in Axure RP?

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I’ve been experimenting with Axure RP and am curious about how to create an interactive tool that helps users find specific locations based on their input, similar to how the ‘Where is My Zip Code’ tool works. This tool is a navigation aid that allows users to input their location and then displays the corresponding zip code based on their input.

I’m particularly interested in how I can replicate the interaction flow where a user enters a location, and the system returns a specific result, such as a zip code. I understand that Axure has features for dynamic panels, conditional logic, and variables, but I’m unsure how to piece them together to achieve this functionality.

For example, should I be using a text input widget combined with a repeater to simulate the lookup of locations? How do I link the input data to display the correct result in a text box or other widget? Also, is there a way to integrate a map or visual guide within Axure RP that updates dynamically based on the user’s input?

Another aspect I’m struggling with is the design of the user interface. The ‘Where is My Zip Code’ tool is straightforward and user-friendly, and I want to create something similar in Axure RP. Should I focus on using specific widgets or interaction styles to make the tool intuitive for users?

Finally, are there any best practices or tips for optimizing this kind of prototype in Axure? I’m looking for advice on how to structure the interactions efficiently, especially if the prototype becomes complex with multiple layers of conditional logic and dynamic content. If anyone has experience creating something similar, I’d appreciate any insights or examples of how you approached it in Axure RP.

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Hi Salvius,

Welcome to the forum!

As far as the technical feasibility of creating a tool like what you’re describing: Axure is more than capable of simulating this behavior, and you’ve outlined a good approach with taking user input from a text field and then comparing it against values in a repeater “database.”

Here’s an example. I’ve included a brief explanation of how it works on the page, and you can download the RP file from there to play with it yourself.

If you were building a tool like this for real (rather than just a prototype), you would probably be sending the user’s input to USPS, Google, or some other database, and then waiting for their server to send a response containing all the information you want to display back to your user. Axure doesn’t have an easy way of doing this, so the “database” has to be baked into your prototype file, and all that text matching has to done in your user’s browser rather than on a server. Since there are about 42,000 ZIP codes, and any city can have several, and there are a bunch of weird edge cases… you probably don’t want to be doing that in the browser. The prototype would be unusably slow, and would probably melt the poor computer’s CPU.

…That’s why, in the example above, I only include zip codes for a handful of cities. How many you can include before your prototype becomes sluggish will partially depend on how much information you’re storing in the repeater. Mine has city, state, ZIP, and a map url. I could probably get a way with a few hundred entries of that scale. But you don’t need more than a few to demonstrate the functionality.

Similar to the address lookup, in a real product you’d simply request a map matching the user’s input from Google or OpenStreetMap. But they have their APIs pretty well locked down, and they aren’t very easy to include in an Axure prototype. In my example, I manually searched Google for those locations and then used the “embed” urls in my iframe. It would be as easy to just use static images of maps in a dynamic panel.

You’re probably sensing a theme here: Axure prototypes are great for demonstrating functionality, but you shouldn’t use them for actually building data-intensive products for end users.

As far as how to approach the actual design… the answer is the entire field of User Experience! What you need here is not to focus on specific widgets, but on who your target users are, what problems they’re facing, how you can address them, and whether they can employ your solution successfully without wanting to take a sledgehammer to their computers and go live in the woods. Prototypes are a great way to test a design in front of some actual people without needing to invest in building the product first, so: you’re on the right track :slight_smile:

Hope this helps!

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