Thoughts & suggestions

Suggestions? Comments? Features you'd like to see?
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jarold
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Thoughts & suggestions

Post by jarold »

Hi,

Having now used the iOS app extensively for the last few weeks & now running the latest release (which is great BTW) I've a few suggestions that I wonder if you would consider?

Dives
- Could the length of a dive be added to the dive list (I only suggest this as it is presented in the DivelogDT app that I came from 7 I sorta miss it. A minor point though.
- Tags - View on Map. Seems to centre the map on the first dive in the category but is too zoomed in to show the others. Map should be scaled to show all dives in tag list
- I like the idea of a random photo appearing in the Tags/Smart Tags sections but have been surprised recently to see kit photos appearing there & often kit not associated with the dives in the selection. Is this a bug or is the photo truly a random one from all photos including gear?

Gear
- Photos uploaded for gear that fit nicely in the provided box in the MacOS desktop application are seriously cropped on iOS, an indication of the displayed area in the MacOS application would help us judge what they will look like on the phone.
- Since 'Groups' has the same sort of effect as 'Smart Tags' in Dives would it be possible for it to behave the same way by showing a random photo for the group - at the moment, although individual items have photos there is none for the Group (I know I could add one & that of course is the other option)
- Might you add an option to show gear as Rented rather than Owned?

Dive Details
- Notes. On the app these are displayed in a scrolling box at the bottom of the screen, this is awkward to read & doesn't work at all in landscape (where you get 2 lines! - on an iPhone 5S at least). I think it would be better if these were presented the same way as notes for gear & Critters in that the whole screen scrolls
- On the tab showing the profile where you can touch & move right/left to see the depth/elapsed time/temperature would it be possible to show the actual time in brackets after elapsed
- On the tab showing the profile if I enable the overlays would it be possible to show their values as you scroll left/right like you do with temperature?
- On the tab showing the profile could the values for the axes be a little brighter/larger, they almost fade into the background at the moment

Sites Map
- I have dives in the UK & dives in Australia & the map centres in Delhi & manages to show none of them, I think it needs to be zoomed out more. Perhaps add a landscape mode too?

Photos
- Is it possible to show/associate any metadata around photos so I can know what it is, when it was taken, where etc.?

Profile
- How about Coldest & Warmest Dive alongside the existing Deepest & Longest?
- Certifications - I've added my cards but the back is usually pretty standard/boring so I added the signed off page in my training book but the presentation suffers the same fate as Gear photos: it is massively cropped, can this be adjusted?

Many thanks

k
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nick
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Re: Thoughts & suggestions

Post by nick »

- Tags - View on Map. Seems to centre the map on the first dive in the category but is too zoomed in to show the others. Map should be scaled to show all dives in tag list
You've already raised this. It fits ALL of the sites. Literally it tells Apple Maps "here are some points, fit them". I'll see if I can tweak it a bit.
- I like the idea of a random photo appearing in the Tags/Smart Tags sections but have been surprised recently to see kit photos appearing there & often kit not associated with the dives in the selection. Is this a bug or is the photo truly a random one from all photos including gear?
Neither. It's because you have gear photos on your dives somewhere, I suspect.
Gear
- Photos uploaded for gear that fit nicely in the provided box in the MacOS desktop application are seriously cropped on iOS, an indication of the displayed area in the MacOS application would help us judge what they will look like on the phone.
They are used at different sizes in different places, and the Mac app has no real knowledge of how the iOS app will treat images. I see why you want it, but this probably won't happen.
- Since 'Groups' has the same sort of effect as 'Smart Tags' in Dives would it be possible for it to behave the same way by showing a random photo for the group - at the moment, although individual items have photos there is none for the Group (I know I could add one & that of course is the other option)
Maybe. It would be better to display some kind of set of images rather than just one, though. But ideally you could take your own photo - that's what the app tries to encourage overall.
- Might you add an option to show gear as Rented rather than Owned?
No. The idea is to log equipment you own, not equipment you rented. If you want to track rental gear and need to differentiate you could make a separate diver (called Rental Diver) and assign that, or leave it as "No Owner", meaning you don't own it. I use "No Owner" for the odd bit of rental gear that I add.
- Notes. On the app these are displayed in a scrolling box at the bottom of the screen, this is awkward to read & doesn't work at all in landscape (where you get 2 lines! - on an iPhone 5S at least). I think it would be better if these were presented the same way as notes for gear & Critters in that the whole screen scrolls
- On the tab showing the profile where you can touch & move right/left to see the depth/elapsed time/temperature would it be possible to show the actual time in brackets after elapsed
- On the tab showing the profile if I enable the overlays would it be possible to show their values as you scroll left/right like you do with temperature?
- On the tab showing the profile could the values for the axes be a little brighter/larger, they almost fade into the background at the moment
I will look in to some of this. You can rotate to landscape to view more data points as you scrub the graph.
Sites Map
- I have dives in the UK & dives in Australia & the map centres in Delhi & manages to show none of them, I think it needs to be zoomed out more. Perhaps add a landscape mode too?
I already replied to this, in a previous post and here. I will look in to it.
Photos
- Is it possible to show/associate any metadata around photos so I can know what it is, when it was taken, where etc.?
You can identify critters to know "what it is", but there's no other info displayed right now.
Profile
- How about Coldest & Warmest Dive alongside the existing Deepest & Longest?
These are available per tag or for all dives anyway. You could always make a smart log with a specific diver to see them, but I'll look in to it.
- Certifications - I've added my cards but the back is usually pretty standard/boring so I added the signed off page in my training book but the presentation suffers the same fate as Gear photos: it is massively cropped, can this be adjusted?
The aspect ratio of how the cards are displayed is fairly close to when I scanned a bunch of my certifications. They seem to fit. Use that as a rough guide I suppose.

The idea isn't to display the full photo perfectly. We spent a bunch of time messing around, and ultimately filling things out makes it look better than leaving dead space.

But, that's my opinion, and unfortunately that drives how certain things work. I'm sorry you've had so much trouble with the Application. I will try and address some of these things for you, however, you've given me three massive posts full of stuff and I have a bunch of other things to work on at the moment, so I can't promise you it will be any time soon.


Edit: I've added some padding to fitting the sites, it works a little better at least on my sites, plus landscape support. Will be in the next update.



Thanks.
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jarold
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:15 am
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Re: Thoughts & suggestions

Post by jarold »

Hi Nick,

I don't want you to think I've had a lot of trouble with the app, overall I love it & will happily continue to use it without question, it is definitely the best iOS Dive app out there.

I just wanted to let you know my thoughts & of course your decision is final :-)

k

PS. More thoughts as I have them ;-)
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nick
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Re: Thoughts & suggestions

Post by nick »

Slight update, for whatever it is worth. The issue with sites not fitting wasn't a case of padding, it was straight up just a bug. It was fitting the sites before iOS had finished performing its initial layout, meaning they were fitted to a different screen/view size.

This is properly fixed (no extra padding required) and works much better.
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