New 6.5.Xbeta version

[FG1961]

First impression: GOOD  

My simple application requests function properly.

Show map, Show tracks, Show waypoints and follow a track!

I find everything I need or I address it to me according to my preferences



Trashcan

The tracks and waypoints will not be removed from the screen  :?:

They remain visible!

Perhaps user error



Trackmanager

The loaded and shown tracks are not marked in the overview

I can not see what tracks I had selected.





Wear App

- No SMS Button

- There are no waypoints visible on the map; with selectable icons

- Only the track I follow. A second track is necessary.



un salodo

Frank

[lexass]

Hi



Training zone change

Alert  with n beeps not working  :cry:

[Quercus.JB]

Hola, acabo de percatarme, que ahora los track que realizas se pintan con las flechitas, que antes solo salían en la ruta que cargabas. ¿Esto va ha ser así, o es un bug?



Enviado desde mi D6503 mediante Tapatalk

[orux]

Thanks for all the comments; now I have to digest it all  



I have updated the beta, it should allow use in android 4.4. Bugs correction, nothing else.



orux

[ThomasSc]

The same, invisible upper menu bar.

Garmin Monterra, Android 4.0.4

Now it shows the upper menu bar on the Monterra.



Thank you.



Regards

Thomas

[adilor78]

Hello Jose,



First impression 6.5.8 beta ... Good.

Just new habits to take, but the simplifications are interesting.

The only big problem at the moment, which prohibits me from going further, the GPS does not start on my device (Samsumg Note 2 Android 4.1.2) and therefore no traces of recording!



Furthermore the French texts that I recently translated into Strings and Arrays files, have not been included in this version, while it's perfect in the previous.



Christian

[Josean]

Hola Orux y compañia!

Tengo otra sugerencia para cambiar relativa al tema de los Perfiles.

Sería posible dar eleccion al usuario, si desea usar carpetas comunes para todos los perfiles creados en lo relativo a las rutas de acceso a mapas, tracks, waypoints...Si el usuario acepta de esta manera configuraría las rutas que estime oportunas y serián comunes a todos los perfiles y si no acepta tendría la opción de configurar en cada perfil su ruta de carpetas preferidas.  

Todo esto es porque hoy mi teléfono se ha actualizado a android 6 (lo mismo me ha ocurrido cuando he cambiado de teléfono) y me encuentro ahora, que nuevamente tengo que reconfigurar, en cada perfil, la ruta de las carpetas donde estan los mapas, los tracks..., que en mi caso son siempre comunes para todos los perfiles creados.

Es una idea, aunque ya siento de veras, estar aquí pensando en como darte todavía mas trabajo, en vez de haber estado cambiando la configuración y todo por querer ser yo mas vago

Saludos y gracias ante todo.

Josean

[FG1961]

Trashcan

The tracks and waypoints will not be removed from the screen  :?:

They remain visible!

Perhaps user error



Trackmanager

The loaded and shown tracks are not marked in the overview

I can not see what tracks I had selected.



Wear App

- No SMS Button

- There are no waypoints visible on the map; with selectable icons

- Only the track I follow. A second track is necessary.



un salodo

Frank

beta2: The 'trashcan' cleans all wp and tracks - Thanks a lot  



un salodo

Frank

[Maki]

Warning, this is going to be long. And critic. Sorry about that. Rest assured I love your app, it's my favorite one and by far :-)



As I hinted in a previous post I disagree about this use of the side drawer. Of course OM is a very complex and particular app and usual interface guidelines have to be adapted a bit, but the navigation drawer has not been invented to be used that way. Its intended use is navigation and/or giving quick access/filtering to stuff we interact with.



Here is a mock-up of an alternative approach. It's just a proof of concept to start a discussion, not a complete proposal.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7310/27301528386_2ce791036b_o.png">

The goal is to have a proactive interface that gives direct quick access to most used things and functions, putting them in evidence, and leaving the menus for the rest.

Starting from the top the two icons in the colored bar are obviously for help and general settings. They are evident, easy to reach and at the same time out of the way, taking little space.



Then the map module. Like every other module it can be collapsed or expanded with the triangle at the left (try Solid Explorer to see the concept in action). The cog icon at the right gives direct access to the map section of the settings. This direct access has been removed in the latest beta menus, and I think it's bad because this kind of shortcut is very useful, especially during initial setup. The global settings have a very deep hierarchy and when experimenting they are a bit of an hassle.

Below there is the list of maps. It's the same list that would be shown by "switch map here" command. The last line brings to the map manager ("switch map" command). Switching maps is now a one touch operation. A long press on the map name could open a quick menu for other less common operations (center map, datum, etc). Or we could have the three dot overflow icon perform the same operation.



Similarly the Mapsforge theme module gives direct access to any installed module, directly showing sub-themes, with the right hand cog used to fine tune overlays. The whole clunky menu driven operation can be removed entirely. Not only this is simpler to use, but it also immediately shows the user that subthemes exist, and from personal experience with the current implementation a lot of people doesn't notice it at all until you tell them.



And so on... In "waypoints" and "profiles" I drawn the three dot icon rather than the cog because there are not really associated preferences, but rather commands (for example "update profile with current settings", or "create new profile").



That said, even if not directly related with this beta I'd like to add some considerations about settings. I've assisted a number of beginners lately and I've seen the difficulty they have in managing all the features. Using the map part of the app is not difficult, sure it can become better (just like everything else in life) but the real problem is setting up maps and managing preferences. I see that most people actually do not take advantage of OM's powerfulness and just stick to the defaults, and so much for having options.



The latest attempt to simplify the preferences has been adding a "show advanced options" checkbox. IMHO this backfired, because if you go straight to a specific settings page you don't even notice it's there and you just miss the "advanced" options. I like it better what Nova Launcher, for example, does. For each card the most commonly used options are directly shown at the top of the list, advanced ones are grouped at the bottom with a toggle to open the list. So if you don't find something you were searching for when you reach the bottom of the list you immediately see there is more. Simple, clean and effective. Simply rearranging the preferences order could be more effective than hiding half of them.



Another problem is verbosity. Settings have a title and a description that most of the time is redundant, which means a lot of unnecessary overwhelming scrolling. I realize fixing this means potentially rewriting a lot of stuff but it would, at least visually, clean up a lot. Actually it's likely that just dropping the title and keeping the description could work.



Sometimes things that should really be together are separate and/or the interface to manage them is awkward. Take for example the dashboard options. Selecting the dashboard components presents a very long list and that's ok. But sorting the components is on another page that presents again the same complete list: if anything it should only show the components that are actually used. But what about using one list for both? Selected items go on top where you can sort them immediately; or better yet, directly display a preview of the dashboard where I can rearrange the items via drag and drop. Also the "new" dashboard is at this point some years old and the "old" it's still there (thankfully, since it's much better ;-)). It would be much simpler to have a "big/little" switch. And do we really need to customize its color? I think that a dark/light switch would be more than enough for 99.9% of people (and the remaining 0.1% would not suffer too much anyway).

More or less the same reasoning can apply to the button editor. What about drag and drop icons like you do with app's icons in any launcher?



Other times I believe things are divided with illogical criteria. Even if I'm a longtime user sometimes I struggle to remember where that particular setting is. For example some colors are defined in the "colors" page of settings (e.g. tracks) other are elsewhere (e.g. dashboard). IMHO that "colors" page could just go away moving the few items in the page they are referring to so that, for example, anything that is related to waypoints is grouped in one place.



Another way to simplify the whole settings thing is to remove from global settings anything that has a direct link from the side menu (e.g Maps, Tracks, GPS...) so that things are shown in a manageable quantity and clearly separated.



One thing that changed recently, and I cannot force me to like, is the use of non standard elements for the interface. What's wrong with the usual "ok/cancel" buttons at the bottom of a dialog? We are already used to them in just about any app, it's second nature to use, custom icons placed on the top add a layer of thought that is not necessary and distracts from what we were doing. Well, at this point I got used to them of course, but still...



Finally, having tried the latest beta a little more I found other two arguable novelties. The first is the red accent for sliders, it's distracting I much preferred when they where light blue and would appreciate them even more in gray. The other one is the new "triangle" style for the current route, again I liked it much better before, I have really no need to see the direction (I know by myself where I'm coming from) and at lower zoom levels it gets ugly very fast.



Please take this as constructive criticism. I really could switch to any other mobile OS at any time if it wasn't for OM...

[msev]

With android wear and latest beta there is maybe a problem. The third screen "blinks" the text, its not shown constantly. First and second screens are ok.  I think maybe it blinked since i didn't have good enough satellite lock (was just showing position and altitude) and it didn't show bearing and speed.

[FG1961]

I use the program only for hiking.

I do not want to get lost the way. OM

I want to stay on the path.  OM

I want to get important points such as lookouts or refuges displayed.  OM

I want to use offline maps like OSM.  OM

It may happen that a track must be drawn on-site.  OM

For example a local hiking map or information board.

I want to let someone know if I am in danger.  OM

Thus my demands on OM are modest.



General App

- Save my setting is missing

- Overview of the displayed tracks on the map is missing



Wear App

- The map no longer asleep (Ambient Mode) -> Thanks a lot  

- No waypoints are displayed, may be limited to 10 specified points

- The SMS button is missing, because my wrist is always near



un saludo

Frank

[6745th@web.de]

Warning, this is going to be long. And critic. Sorry about that. Rest assured I love your app, it's my favorite one and by far :-)



Please take this as constructive criticism. I really could switch to any other mobile OS at any time if it wasn't for OM...

Maki stated some good ideas.



With the side drawer OM looks nice, modern.

But together with menu bar, its often confusing.

Maps selection is in the sidedrawer, the other map stuff is in the menu bar.

The same with wp and tracks.

I would prefere removing the menu bar and get a fully featured side bar.

So we would get more place for the map.

The buttons from the menubar could optionaly moved to the buttons in the left/rigth buttonbar.

[FG1961]

Warning, this is going to be long. And critic. Sorry about that. Rest assured I love your app, it's my favorite one and by far :-)



Please take this as constructive criticism. I really could switch to any other mobile OS at any time if it wasn't for OM...

Maki stated some good ideas.



With the side drawer OM looks nice, modern.

But together with menu bar, its often confusing.

Maps selection is in the sidedrawer, the other map stuff is in the menu bar.

The same with wp and tracks.

I would prefere removing the menu bar and get a fully featured side bar.

So we would get more place for the map.

The buttons from the menubar could optionaly moved to the buttons in the left/rigth buttonbar.

  thumbs up

I like this



Best Regards

Frank

[orux]

Thank you all.



There are very good suggestions in your posts.



What I want is:

The navigation drawer is a good pattern, because it allows you to manipulate the app with just one hand. I want to add to that tool enough options to avoid having to use the top action bar. The idea is to add a expandablelistview, with two levels and different options and actions. These users can also use sidebars buttons with more options than the current (start/stop ant, heart rate, ...). These users even could disable the top bar.



But I want the old users, who are comfortable with the top bar, could continue using it. There are many reluctant users to such big changes. These users could not use the navigation drawer.



This will require maintain redundant options.



http://imageshack.com/a/img921/7844/691dNi.png">





Still thinking about all those stuff...

[Jbrio]

hola, en esta nueva beta no encuentro como modificar el tono en acercamiento a un wp o en alejamiento de ruta. O no està o no lo encuentro.

Gracias