Usability issues

[soarak]

I am currently using LK8000, but due to lack of support for Android devices I started looking at XCS. I have it installed on ipaq 310 and Galaxy Player 5". No doubt the Galaxy Player 5" is a wonderful device that I would like to stick to however the issue is how XCS handles Flight Setup. It is impossible to edit ballast or "Bugs" during the flight it is not that easy to hit these tiny fields even seating at my desk. LK8000 has big buttons for these purposes and I had no problems with editing these values. The other screen that is very difficult to use is Select Waypoint. The font is so small it is very difficult to read. There is plenty of space on the screen to make the font larger. By doing so the height of each row would increase a bit but that would be a good thing since it would be easier to select a row. You guys have done a lot of work porting to Android what is needed now is some usability improvements to make XCS pilot friendly.
I hope you can address these issues.

[max]

Is this the same problem on both devices?

[max]

And same problem portrait & landscape?

[soarak]

The usability of the Flight Setup screen is equally bad on both devices in portrait and landscape. The usability of the waypoint selection screen is a little better in the portrait mode on both devices.

This is my suggestion: On the Flight Setup screen increase vertical distance between the edit fields themselves and also between the close button and the ballast filed. When I try to hit the ballast button I often hit the close, drives me crazy. In addition for additional improvement a big button in front of the filed could be used, but good spacing might be enough.

In regards to waypoint selection screen. Increasing font will take care of most problems. When I look at the list the most important thing I need to see is either arrival height or the difference in altitude needed. Today the font is so small I can't read the thing unless the light conditions are perfect and even then it is difficult. For tasks creation what is available today is good enough but for "go to" function (in flight use) it is not.

[max]

You are right, we should enlarge the controls when there is enough space. This was difficult to do with the 6.2 code base, but we have developed the tools now in 6.3 to do it more easily. If you have suggestions or bug reports, please write a ticket in our bug tracker: http://www.xcsoar.org/trac/newticket

[Hytsky]

I think this should be moved under "user experience".

I agree with Sorak. Polar settings and turnpoints/goto selections need to be used during the flight, and now using these utilities requires menu selections, seeing small text and selecting tiny boxes. I am getting increasingly difficulties with small print, and touchscreen selections in a shaking airplane is not easy.

Before writing a ticker and making any program changes, I propose we discuss about different possibilities.
Could it be possible to have Polar and GOTO pages select-able with wiping left/right like map pages/infoboxes today? In the future, might be that some of us develop a rotary encoder/push-button interface, which would be easy to integrate.

[soarak]

Can't do it.

TICKET_CREATE privileges are required to perform this operation

[max]

TICKET_CREATE privileges are required to perform this operation

Did you register/login? (Unfortunately, a separate user account is needed for forum and bug tracker.)

[soarak]

I think this should be moved under "user experience".

I agree with Sorak. Polar settings and turnpoints/goto selections need to be used during the flight, and now using these utilities requires menu selections, seeing small text and selecting tiny boxes. I am getting increasingly difficulties with small print, and touchscreen selections in a shaking airplane is not easy.

Before writing a ticker and making any program changes, I propose we discuss about different possibilities.
Could it be possible to have Polar and GOTO pages select-able with wiping left/right like map pages/infoboxes today? In the future, might be that some of us develop a rotary encoder/push-button interface, which would be easy to integrate.

I like your idea. Going to these values directly would be excellent. Could we have a discussion on this forum or should I write a proposed solution.

[staylo]

Hi soarak,

You're entirely right, the current XCSoar UI is poorly suited to modern android devices, especially suffering on devices without a 4:3 aspect ratio. The menu interface was designed in ~2005 for a non-touchscreen 320x240 device (the Triadis Altair) as the focus, and the design has little in common with modern smartphone touchscreen interfaces. The challenge is for the new UI to be intuitive and quick to navigate in flight and on the ground, and yet retain compatibility with the older Pocket PC, PNA and Altair devices. Rob Dunning has done a lot of excellent work on this recently, presenting non-xcsoar users with mocked-up portions of the new UI interface and setting them a challenge (eg configuring xcsoar for their aircraft) and filming their responses to see what can be improved.

It's too early to tell yet whether 6.3 - intended to be released by the start of the soaring season - will incorporate a complete new UI or whether it will be a transitional step, so there may still be some time to wait. But be assured there's plenty of work being put into improving the UI, both in terms of design and the code necessary to implement it, and once the framework's taking shape we'll be asking for more input from users.