I am right now in the process of moving most of my business from the Kingdom of Denmark to the United Kingdom.
During that process I have become a regular customer at the Gatwick Express, the (sometimes) fast train going from London’s second largest airport to central London.
When buying tickets online they require you to enter a billing address. Here you can choose between entering a UK address or an international address.
If you enter a UK address the site takes advantage of the UK postal code system where you just have to enter a postcode, which is very granular in the UK, and a house number, and then the system will know your address.
Alternatively you can choose to enter an international address. In that case you will get a form with more fields for you to enter. But, in order not to be too international the form still have the UK way of formatting an address.
Also the default country is United Kingdom which I guess is the only value that should not be applicable for this form.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 
So many companies use the postal/house# form as a pre-required step that if you don’t know it or if there is some small issue with their database you are unable to purchase.
In the US there are many companies that do address verification as part of the process (ex: FedEx) but if you enter an address they can’t verify then they’ll give you a warning and allow you to proceed.
I suspect that that latter reason is why the form contains a UK default.
-XC
PS – Ping me on my email and next time I’m in the UK I’ll buy you a pint.
Cliff, I think you are right about using the international form if the postcode lookup doesn’t work for a UK address.
Looking forward to that pint 🙂
Interesting how the detailed UK postal code system contributes to UI design and functionality.
Hope your relocation is going well Henrik!
Thanks Marie. Relocating isn’t without issues, but I’m having a good time.
hehehe. Sounds like a perfect move to the UK for your business. Nice blog of yours. Good luck.
Thanks a lot Flemming.
Congrats on the move! Hope it all goes smoothly.
Thanks Chrysta. Many things are going smoothly and some things are not as easy as thought. But then I’ll get some training in one of my favorite sports being troubleshooting.