AlpineQuest & OfflineMaps

Having used this app over the weekend I found the amount of controls on the map was a bit of a distraction.

When hiking with a Map app most of the time all you need to do is check the map and your direction. At the beginning of a route you would switch the tracking on, at the end turn it off, there may be occasions when you would use the features available but then you could call up the buttons when needed.

The idea I had was firstly reduce the size of the level and zoom controls at the bottom, a small + & - in circles with a line between and a small slide control is all that's needed, this is one control that I would use regularly and tucked neatly at the bottom would not be intrusive.

I would now have a command to bring the other controls into view, maybe just a press on the map. A second touch of the map would then hide them again if not hidden then an autohide setting of maybe 5 or 10 seconds could be set from the options menu.

This is only my perspective based on how I use the app and would be interested in other users opinions.

Hi,
You're right that there is a lot of tabs.
A user proposed a feature to be able to hide them in order to get a full map view (in french, here). I think this is a bit related to your post.
Independently of changing the UI of some controls (your idea for + / - buttons seems nice), it could be usefull to be able to hide all tabs, keeping only lights + and - buttons. In this mode, a first press on the phone's 'Menu' button could quit the full map mode. Another press could shows the classical menu.
I'll made some tests.
Thanks

Taking the UI further,
when looking into different 'Map Apps' (I looked at quite a few and liked AlpineQuest the most) I liked the UI of Trek Buddy but this stil had it's shortfall.

Trek Buddy has areas of the screen that turn on and off different features. This was good because it didn't obscure the map however the problem was until you got used to the App it had a tendency to be a bit of a guessing game.

One of the things about the AlpineQuest UI that I'm not keen on (sorry) is the sliders. It looks quite slick but if for arguments sake you want to turn on the GPS to find your location, select focus to measure a distance and then track a route you would have to do this:

1) Open GPS Slider
2) Select GPS
3) Select Return
4) Close GPS slider
5) Open Focus slider
6) Select focus
7) Select Create from Centre position
8) Select track slider
9) Select Record track
10) Close Tracking slider

What I think would be a good UI is have the controls that you have already on the screen but hidden, when touching an area of the screen the controls visible. Instead of having the sliders the buttons have a default action on a quick press e.g.: GPS on/Off, Compass On/Off, Tracking On/Off, Focus On/Off. I would split the Tracking button to three separate controls on the right side of the screen which would give you Create Way-point, Record/Track route, Create Route. AS well as the default actions I would also have an options panel the same as the panels you already have open on a long press which would allow the user to define actions for the button or change the parameters for the controls.

Now going through the above settings

1) Press screen to get controls
2) Select GPS
3) Select focus
4) Select record track

Controls auto-hide after set time.

I know this is an extreme example but it demonstrates a UI that should be intuitive and quicker to use.