Ok so a list to begin with of things that need attention. Then the next post might be the order, but lets get them down first…
1. speed (i know, i know, but its the big one)
2. feedback on buttons, because its slow, the temptation is to push a button more than once because you’re unsure if a service is on or off. If its a matter of graphics – tell me i can make some on/off versions very quickly. Key buttons are…
a) footprint
b) explore – somehow a way of knowing that ‘markers’ are on. Many times you will be in an area and there will be no markers, but you’re unsure if markers is on or off. So a way of telling the user that the markers are definitely on would be good.
c) Same for Route, although obviously you’re taken to their start point, but if you move away from the start point then you may forget that the routes are on and are obscuring other ways of seeing markers (for example).
3. I know this may be impossible to resolve, but its irresistible not to want to zoom into further than the maps allow. The 2 zoom levels are great, but can we have more? even if the bitmap just gets bigger? Plus you can get lost when you are too far out – you never know how many levels you have to click thru before you find yourself in an olf map again.
4. On my iphone there is a white bar at the bottom under the menu bar. Is that due to platforms standards? screen size? can we put anything in there?
5. Do we need a link anywhere to a project website? sounds like more buttons, but i wonder if people would need access to a help page.
6. Follow me is slow – i know this is a speed thing but to get the audience ‘really’ into the map then the follow me should be very responsive indeed. On my google map app, the blue dot feels like me cos it moves reasonably quickly after i do. This may be very hard to do on a web app.
7. Really picky – the balloon graphic top right on the screen could be cleaner (really picky! sorry)
8. When you click on a marker, some seem to be truncated – scott monument for example
9. Marker filling is great – fast and simple. Only the amount of text that is displayed is a problem – the page could be cooler i guess.
10. At some point we might want to develop a product site and a brand (probably my job) but like for comob, it would involve buying a URL and developing a micro site to ‘push’ the product. (www.comob.org.uk).