Route planner usability

Jon Reed ●

I also use Locus for at least 180 days a year for cycle planning and have found the planner extremely difficult to plan with. It's always been so simple before. When you found a section Locus couldn't route you through you'd just change to car, or manual, then switch back. Now I don't really understand what's going on when I try this but the route seems to mess up previous sections.

Is there anyway I can revert to a previous version or planner? The current one is just cumbersome and irritating.

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Jon Reed ●

Just been trying to plan a cycle route from Bremerhaven to Kiel. The planner is almost unusable now for this. I have to keep putting draw manually sections in (which I don't mind) but it always then redraws much (not all) of the previous sections as manual straight lines. I then have to manually correct each one, then it happens again next draw manually section.

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freischneider ●

Manually by long pressing + button

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Jon Reed ●

Sorry, I don't really understand this reply.

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freischneider ●

Draw a manual section by clicking and holding on +. Then continue cycling.

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Michal Stupka ●

This needs to be turned on in the route planner settings > Long tap on '+' > select "Add segment in manual mode"

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Michal Stupka ●

Hi all,

sorry for the inconvenience, please install the latest beta version from https://bit.ly/lmVersionsTest in which the issue with recalculation of the whole route into the manual mode is resolved. Long-press on the profile button quickly changing into the manual mode is activated, when you turn on "Quick parameters" in the route planner settings. More about at https://docs.locusmap.app/doku.php?id=manual:user_guide:tracks:planning#manual_mode.

If you need to plan the route per segments with different routing profiles, select "Continue with" from the profile submenu. More at https://docs.locusmap.app/doku.php?id=manual:user_guide:tracks:planning#select_routing_profile

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freischneider ●

In the current beta version, long clicks no longer work. This has been changed. Long clicks now open the profile settings. It only works by long clicking on the + button.

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Graf Geo ●

However, this only applies if you have NOT activated the "Quick profile parameters" option in the route planner menu under Settings. Otherwise the following applies:

Long press on the round blue profile button to switch to manual mode. Another long press returns to the previously used mode.
Longpressing on the small plus button sets a manual segment once.

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Michal Stupka ●

This will need a few more iterations as we are struggling to get the most convenient solution for all our users - the current who are used to the previous solution, and the new ones, who expect something different. Anyway, we understand this causes a bit of confusion but believe, we are doing our best to find the right solution.

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

Yes, it's clearly an issue to struggle with whenever you change something people are used too already - I still don't know how to learn about the incoming changes to voice an opinion before such change goes live when it becomes a problem report :)

I also just recently found that switching to manual drawing needs more taps now. And, while i could live with that, especially being all too familiar with the windmill fights with such "improvements", it was worse than that - change to manual that way recalculated my previous segements to manual too 🤯 what the.... and i came to report that once back behind the desk.

In some other discussion i already proposed to extend the changelog with list of things to come. At least for me this would be the best chance of seeing it. Or perhaps even better - where could i sign for a backlog newsletter or something like that? I don't want to press that i feel entitled to have a say expecially about functionalities i actually use, but yeah i feel entitled, not just as a subscriber, but also a loyal user for oh, so many years now i can't count :(

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

Hi Michal, back to actual topic - I've tried the test version with the tips you gave, i hope i can put my feedback in some decent order.

Traditionally i would work with planner in such way that i set the profile for the entire trip - ie. touring or hiking, then if for some reason the planner did not want draw a route as i wan't i would switch to manual with a long-press on profile icon. No complaints, i found it very efficient actually.

However i did not know about long-press actions on [-], [+]. learned about it only today and now trying it both ways

the default ability to add a point in several different ways is a very powerful feature, that is a no brainer!
and alternative: as a quick manual draw, which is even faster than switching the profile!

I am now in slight dillema, because both actions are great! I think i will stay with quick manual draw as this seems like something i tend to use more often in my workflow

However I need to stress that it is great that you gave this abillity for the user to configure this action. This is much appreciated, thanks!

The profile button

default behavior (quick params disabled): this was an unexpected change for me, and despite your efforts with the orange warning notification about what would happen when i confirm the change (yes, i see it clearly states, whole route will be recalculate, the button also makes it pretty clear) i still must have skipped the text and confirmed. You see, previously i could switch the profile, without mandatory recalculation, i used this several times before, why would i spend extra time reading about something i think i already know - that's 101 typical user mentality and i'm clearly no exception 😆
that said, now knowing about long-press on [+] it makes sens that profile button only serves for profile change and long-press for profile params
alternative: having this and alternative to long-press [+] (which i clearly see as more efficient) is simply redundant, so i now see why the decision was made to scrub previous long-press behavior.

I now think that the alternative behavior is not needed, BUT there is something worth improving, Because both tap and long-press change something about the profile, both those options could use having two confirm buttons: primary - [recalculate all] and secondary - [continue with]. Example - during a trip i plan to cycle then walk - [continue with] makes all the sense! Another example - during a cycling trip i might want to take some tunnels, ferries, then for some segment avoid them at all cost - [continue with] makes sense too.
Actually I think that exposing [continue with] as a button would be beneficial in itself for a more intuintive operation.

And that's all for my feedback, hope it will be of some use :)

And of course, this goes without saying, that i still love Locus and find it the best there is (since i usually don't need to even try the competition xD)

Hi Michal, back to actual topic - I've tried the test version with the tips you gave, i hope i can put my feedback in some decent order.

Traditionally i would work with planner in such way that i set the profile for the entire trip - ie. touring or hiking, then if for some reason the planner did not want draw a route as i wan't i would switch to manual with a long-press on profile icon. No complaints, i found it very efficient actually.

However i did not know about long-press actions on [-], [+]. learned about it only today and now trying it both ways

the default ability to add a point in several different ways is a very powerful feature, that is a no brainer!
and alternative: as a quick manual draw, which is even faster than switching the profile!

I am now in slight dillema, because both actions are great! I think i will stay with quick manual draw as this seems like something i tend to use more often in my workflow

However I need to stress that it is great that you gave this abillity for the user to configure this action. This is much appreciated, thanks!

The profile button

default behavior (quick params disabled): this was an unexpected change for me, and despite your efforts with the orange warning notification about what would happen when i confirm the change (yes, i see it clearly states, whole route will be recalculate, the button also makes it pretty clear) i still must have skipped the text and confirmed. You see, previously i could switch the profile, without mandatory recalculation, i used this several times before, why would i spend extra time reading about something i think i already know - that's 101 typical user mentality and i'm clearly no exception 😆
that said, now knowing about long-press on [+] it makes sens that profile button only serves for profile change and long-press for profile params
alternative: having this and alternative to long-press [+] (which i clearly see as more efficient) is simply redundant, so i now see why the decision was made to scrub previous long-press behavior.

I now think that the alternative behavior is not needed, BUT there is something worth improving, Because both tap and long-press change something about the profile, both those options could use having two confirm buttons: primary - [recalculate all] and secondary - [continue with]. Example - during a trip i plan to cycle then walk - [continue with] makes all the sense! Another example - during a cycling trip i might want to take some tunnels, ferries, then for some segment avoid them at all cost - [continue with] makes sense too.
Actually I think that exposing [continue with] as a button would be beneficial in itself for a more intuintive operation.

And that's all for my feedback, hope it will be of some use :)

And of course, this goes without saying, that i still love Locus and find it the best there is (since i usually don't need to even try the competition xD)

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freischneider ●

New features are discussed, developed, improved, and tested in the beta.

https://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?board=62.0

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

Thanks for pointing to this! i'll try to follow this regularly.

However ... "chg: route planner - major improvement of the workflow for selecting routing profiles and their parameters" i'll make a note that mentions of "improvement" rise red flags 😊

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

ooooh, and now i remembered why i don't visit forums much - separate account needed. neat!

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Jon Reed ●

I find the long press to select a manual mode very useful - though it was painfully hard to discover this feature once you changed the old method of clicking draw manually.

I would still say however that the recalculate the whole route whenever you change the profile type from say touring to walking is a PIA!

I plan routes by clicking my start and finish points and see what locus does. I then drag the route about to optimise it and frequently find Locus can't navigate along a section for some reason. I then switch to manual or try walking, road or even car, which then recalculates the whole route.

It worked well before, but now I have to remember to click continue with instead of just tapping the relevant icon although I'm sure you'll say this is how it is supposed to work now but in my view it's a retrograde step and like when you made the altitude profile 2 clicks instead of one, it makes using Locus just that tiny bit less pleasant and easy.

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Frank H ●

I must admit I found the previous UX somewhat cumbersome from the beginning, but now I'm totally confused :-/

It just doesn't feel right no matter which obscure setting combinations I try.

To me it seems there are at least three different use cases or ways users are planning and modifying their routes and that they are so different, that there should be three completely different UIs for that.

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

Ok, something wierd - is the test version and current release version different in how it's possible to change a segment routing profile by tapping on that segments midpoint? I could swear i was able to do it on official version... In test version that just opens the drawer with information... am i just confused... i discovered it accidentaly (duh, 101 user mentality) and that was actually a neat feature i thought!

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

If i could summarise the problem here, perhaps that would help to address it:
BEFORE:

- changing routing profile did not affect previously created segments (or am i wrong?)

- long-press always switched to manual draw by default

NOW:

- changing routing profile recalculates whole route, the button confirming the change just says [Close] (but under menu of each profile one can select [Continue with].)

- long press opens current profile properties (but there is a workaround via settings....)

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Jon Reed ●

Wasn't there a recalculate all button somewhere else too? It's all very confusing now.

I just can't see why when planning a route and swapping a profile from cycling to walking that the default process would recalculate the whole route. That seems the wrong way round to me. Default to segment calculation and continue with should be recalculate all route with this profile type

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Bartek Zoladkowski ●

Yes, there was a [Recalculate All] confirm button, perhaps that changed between official and test. Now that [Close] button actually only dismisses the dialog - the profile change, confirm and recalc happens by just tapping on an entry.

I would also think that changing orofile like this should just affect the current mode, Continue with as default. And recalculate all, ie. update the profile for all segments, as a secondary option, under a menu, etc

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freischneider ●

There were various requests, and it was implemented accordingly. You can read about it in the forum. Menion also wrote that he's not satisfied yet. He's still looking for the optimal solution.

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Route planner usability

Replies (7)