Usability improvements

actually I'm not interested in any voting I just hoped some developer might read my thoughts based on years of experience. if you're not able to identify just these so obvious usability problems, I'm not wondering people outside are using all these crappy map aps. to introduce a chart which could make Garmins obsolete and not realize it's needed outside, on the bike, to see what's ahead, not at home, is just doing the thing half way.

I know very well how to disable map centering. But in real life you very often want to look at some position at the map which is not at the center and still maintain map centering. Imagine your cycling and just have look whats aead... a map just jumping back after a short while is just annoying.

I feel like locus is a very underrated app an actually such minor but annoying usability bugs are the reason for this.

@ Eduard: How do you envisage this working? Is Locus supposed to guess, or read your mind, as to how long you want to look at the moved section of the map and when it should be centred again?

Looking at a point on the map that isn’t in the centre whilst still keeping the map centred does sound a bit contradictory. What exactly do you have in mind?

I'm not a developer, at least not of Locus but i could imagine several possible solutions. If user moves the map out of centered position and there is no change of geoposition, we really might assume he don't want the map be centered again or? Otherwise he could just tap the center button. Even in motion, we might assume the change of coordinates is intentional and increase the centering interval, or introduce some dialog etc.

There is as well another case, where the map switches to centered position immediately which is even more annoying but maybe just my special use case, now I'm not sure where, but let you know if i step over it again.

Locus is already doing exactly that. You need to remove the blue lock from the centered button.

Do I have a chat with some AI? The use case is the following: I'm using Locus for navigating (without navigation function on), just holding the center locked. That's perfect. When I need to see where I have to go or I am, I just look at the screen. But in real life, you need to know what's ahead of you as well, not once, often. Where is a good spot for a break, spring, store, whatever... I don't want do disable hold center, as the changes are good and I forget to re-enable it, i just want to quickly look at another location on the map, then maybe switch to the satellite map to see if the place is in shade but and in a minute continue my trip a and keep holding the map centered WITHOUT turning it on again.
I spent now almost a month on a bike/hike w. locus and yes, I think that's a (logic) bug! Why should anyone want to return to the center when he just a 10 seconds ago moved the map screen?

Hi Eduard,

"chat with some AI" > funny. No, you are not talking to AI. I perfectly understand your point, but have no idea, how to make it properly. You simply want to have active hold map center, but in some situations it won't work, because app will be clever and decide "ah, he does not want to center now".

Currently, centering is blocked, when any point or track is selected. So solution is for example long click on the map to display the detail of this place, that also prevent automatic recentering. Any smart logic will be incorrect in any cases, I'm sure.

I personally do not have this problem. My use-case is perfectly covered with current solution. Looking forward, leaving map for a moment > recenter. Switch to previous map by long click on small "Map-screen content button" and in worst case, long click on centering button to disable "Hold map center". It seems to be same with other people here.

What I may suggest > in the app Expert settings exists "Hold map center timeout". You may increase it here from default 5 seconds to higher value. You may get enough time to change the map, while still keeping centering work with a longer delay.

Track chart > zoom buttons are in the separate "Charts page". Directly in the track detail is no space for it.

Surface/way types > I'll think about it, good point.

Hi

Two points on map centering:

1.1/ With hold center enabled: Long press the map center button. Message "Disabled: Hold Map center" is displayed. Drag the map. The map remains where it is. OK.

1.2/ With hold center enabled: Drag the map. Then long press the map center button within the timeout period. Message "Disabled: Hold Map center" is displayed. HOWEVER the map still centers after a few seconds. After that map centering remains disabled.

Looks like a bug to me.

2/ IMO the OP makes a good point. I long ago abandoned auto map centering because as a hiker when I consult the app I almost always want to drag the map somewhere and I got fed up of every time having to remember to disable then re-enable map centering. So now when I get the phone out I first manually center the map (single tap) then if wanted I drag it. Fine (but not ideal) for a hiker, but no use if you are on a bike and need to see the map centered all the time.

IMO there are two scenarios with conflicting requirements - map not centered because you have moved; map not centered because you have dragged the map (or possibly also including any other method you have deliberately moved it). For the first I want the map to auto center within a few seconds as long as I have not previosuly dragged the map deliberately. For the second I want the timeout to be much longer.

Suggestion: Assuming the app can distinguish these two scenarios (surely it could, couldn't it ?? - set a flag when drag happens, clear it when map centered) then if the settings allowed the timeout to be set separately for each it would give the control needed. Move auto-centering would not restart until the map is centered either manually or by the drag timeout firing.

So, if you had move timeout set to 5 seconds, and drag timeout to e.g. 2 minutes (or whatever), when you are moving the map will correctly center rapidly; after you drag it will stay dragged for up to 2 minutes.

When you drag and are finished then a single tap on the map center button would re-center the map and rapid move-auto-centering would then restart. No long pressing needed to disable/re-enable it.

An additional possibilty would be to reset the drag timer every time the map is dragged, so that it only auto re-centers when you have almost certainly finished whatever you are doing instead of interrupting your dragging.

Obviously I don't know all the technical gotchas which might be involved but I feel that something like the above should be possible. IMO it's a fairly fundamental feature so worthy of some priority.

1.2/ I also see this as a bug, or at least inconsistent behaviour.

2. Centring whilst moving. There’s one thing I don’t understand: when you move, the map basically moves with you (so it’s continuously centred), regardless of whether the centring lock is active or not.

Thanks for pointing that out, you are correct it does, but I find not if you have hold-center disabled and move the map. Sorry for confusing the discussion.

The user guide says:

"to keep your GPS location centered, hold the centering button until keeping the location centered is confirmed:"

"to abort the auto-centering, hold the centering button again until the abort is confirmed."

This seems to imply with it disabled it will not keep the GPS location centered at all, even when simply moving. It does not distinguish between position moving and map moving (e.g dragged)

I assumed (wrongly) that is why I have to center my position manually when I get my phone out.

However, I just tested it out closely and I now realize that even the slightest manual movement of the map - e.g. if you zoom in by pinching and inadvertantly move the map slightly - then with hold-center disabled the auto movement position centering no longer functions , and there is no obvious warning of that. That's why I have to center the map manually each time - because last time I used it I moved it without afterwards re-centering it.

So the solution as already pointed out is to enable hold-center and increase the timeout value, and after dragging the map if you're finished what you are doing a single tap to re-center is all that is needed, or else wait for the timeout. I think when I originally abandoned hold-center years ago I wasn't aware of that timeout setting.

The terminology is perhaps a bit confusing because even with hold-center disabled it does "hold-centre" as you move as long as its already centered - you might think as I did from the user guide that with hold-center disabled it would not follow position at all.

Useful discussion, thanks guys.

1.2 - should be fixed in the next version.

2 - I'm comparing Google Maps behavior and I see, they have this partially covered by two small differences

• tiny movement does not disable active centering. So few pixels movement, usually accidental, keep map centered
• pinch zoom when map is centered, zoom around this center and also does not break the centering

Both looks very useful to me and partially cover what you (Alan) wrote moment ago. I'll look at it, if it will be easy to improve in the Locus Map as well.

Thanks Alan, this is a perfect solution, especially the "reset" idea!

I believe Locus is not far from being a great bike/hike navigation app, just some tuning needed. Sure, there are people following a previously made route on a bike blindly, but on the road it's beneficial often re-evaluate (lot's of traffic here, but there is a side road, is this an option?) and Locus makes this on-the-fly optimizing perfectly possible, except when the map jumps back to your current position after 5 seconds.

"IMO there are two scenarios with conflicting requirements - map not centered because you have moved; map not centered because you have dragged the map (or possibly also including any other method you have deliberately moved it). For the first I want the map to auto center within a few seconds as long as I have not previosuly dragged the map deliberately. For the second I want the timeout to be much longer.

Suggestion: Assuming the app can distinguish these two scenarios (surely it could, couldn't it ?? - set a flag when drag happens, clear it when map centered) then if the settings allowed the timeout to be set separately for each it would give the control needed. Move auto-centering would not restart until the map is centered either manually or by the drag timeout firing.

So, if you had move timeout set to 5 seconds, and drag timeout to e.g. 2 minutes (or whatever), when you are moving the map will correctly center rapidly; after you drag it will stay dragged for up to 2 minutes.

When you drag and are finished then a single tap on the map center button would re-center the map and rapid move-auto-centering would then restart. No long pressing needed to disable/re-enable it.

An additional possibilty would be to reset the drag timer every time the map is dragged, so that it only auto re-centers when you have almost certainly finished whatever you are doing instead of interrupting your dragging."

Hi Menion, thnx for the answer and yes, I should have opened a separate issue for this, but...
"Track chart > zoom buttons are in the separate "Charts page". Directly in the track detail is no space for it."

A. This might be an misunderstanding, I think there is a lot of space b/n "Chart" and pin/unpin button, see screenshot. Again, this chart is a killer feature for cyclists, just on a 100km track only when zoomed in and pinch to zoom is on asphalt difficult and on a dirt road barely possible (btw. i believe many user don't even realize there is this option).
B. I don's see any zoom in/out buttons on the chart page (although this is not that necessary as this screen is rather not used while on the move and therefore it's possible to use pinch to zoom).

Another thing I find lacking (I think this has been mentioned before) is that the route types and surface scale don’t zoom in automatically when you zoom in the chart. For longer routes, it’s almost impossible to identify the surface changes properly.