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Feedback and query on map orientation


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I saw this app being discussed the other night on the Geocaching in Scotlland Facebook group and thought I'd give it a try I'm very impressed so far. So I went out last night to try it "in anger" as it were to put it through its paces on some semi rural caches on outskirts of city.

Mostly great easy to use and clear. A couple of things I wasn't too clear on, and one feature that I couldn't work out if it was missing or I just didn't find out how to switch it on.

The map tiles seemed to take a while to load, I had 4G for most of the time and 3G otherwise, this is why I chose a semi rural location on outskirts of city so I'd have a strong wifi if I couldn't work out things in app. I'm not sure why they are quicker in the Groundspeak apps but I suspect there may be some preloading/caching going on. I wonder if there might be an option in Cachly to download tiles in background when you are on navigate to cache so that when you zoom in its a smoother experience, rather than having to wait for tiles to load.

This map tile thing might be solved by downloading and saving the tiles offline I thought I'd tried that but realise I'd not done a sufficiently high tile level download. On a side note whilst I've done loads of programming development work in C# on GIS systems and thus I knew immediately what the tile levels referred to, your average user might not have a clue. Perhaps a help button to explain what the tile levels are would be useful for those users.

When I was navigating to the cache the only real frustration I had was I couldn't find out how to get the map to orientate to the direction I was facing. On the Groundspeak apps there is an option where you can be navigating to the cache on map view and as you turn on the spot the map turns with you so you can orientate yourself on the map. On Cachly I couldn't work out how to do this so I found my self switching to compass view then going back to map view and manually orientatng the map then navigating.

I think the issue is that I really don't like navigating using the compass view I far far prefer seeing the icons for me and the cache on the map and navigating that way. For this reason I found my lack of knowledge of how to change this option a right royal pain. So much so that I was on occassions dipping back into the geocaching classic app to check I was heading the right way in the forest trails when I came to a fork in the path.

I'm guessing that since both Groundspeak apps and several others on the market have this feature that I missed where it was on Cachly, or perhaps it's something that is missing and could be added as a feature. At present this would be the one and only thing that would stop me using the app.

Other observations and suggestions:

When caching I love the ability to write short logs with a note about anything I saw etc. A few words as a reminder for my proper write up later. I do this as a found it log and save for later. One thing that I've always thought would be an improvement to a geocaching app would be if these locally saved found it logs then marked the icon on the map to indicate I'd found it. This is particularly useful when doing a lot of caching in an area seeing the icons change as you cache is very helpful. Perhaps a green tick icon to indicate it's found but not a "found it" logged on website.

I appreciate that if I actually sent the log then the icons would change however I prefer to write longer more interesting logs when I get home. So having the map update as I go is helpful so I can see if I've missed any when trying to clear out an area.

Similarly seeing a DNF icon as an option whether from a past visit or this one would be handy. Perhaps a standard blue sad face for a logged DNF and a red cross for one logged but not submitted?

I do a fair bit of caching wher I drive round an area stop get out and clear the caches there then move on. Driving solo point to point like this I put the phone in a holder on the dashboard and navigate so it works a bit like an in car sat nav. On the other apps I could have it so that it shows my location and cache location with the line on the map Cachly does this already.

What the other app does too is to zoom in as you get that bit closer, thus as I drive closer and closer to goal the screen resizes to keep the line occupying the majority of the screen. This makes it very easy to see when you are getting closer and most importantly it means it's a hands free operation navigating closer. Thus I get to see the maps zoom in when I am getting close and can glance to see how far it is any turn offs etc. without taking my hands off the wheel. Again I assume that whilst navigating it's downloading the next level of tiles in the background so that the zooming in is very smooth.

I couldn't work out how to tell the accuracy level of my GPS in the app. I've since learnt this morning that I can do that by tapping on the coordinates in the compass which is nice but again I use the map navigation, any chance of seeing accuracy figure say perhaps at top where is has cache name and Xm from your current location Ym accuracy?

Anyway many thanks for the App I'm very confident I'll make it my default app. I've heard great things about how keen you are to hear from users about their experiences and get ideas for improving the app. As a fellow developer (I've written desktop apps for Family History use) I know how getting feedback from users can be a great incentive to do more and improve the app although I also know it can be a challenge too when they start demanding things :) I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my feedback and I've no doubt I'll be an advocate for people to use your app in future, especially at this period when Groundspeak seem to have lost their way.

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The map tiles seemed to take a while to load, I had 4G for most of the time and 3G otherwise, this is why I chose a semi rural location on outskirts of city so I'd have a strong wifi if I couldn't work out things in app. I'm not sure why they are quicker in the Groundspeak apps but I suspect there may be some preloading/caching going on. I wonder if there might be an option in Cachly to download tiles in background when you are on navigate to cache so that when you zoom in its a smoother experience, rather than having to wait for tiles to load.

 

What map provider were you using? Map tiles will be downloading directly from their providers, so I am not sure what the slowdown would be. Have not seen this issue myself.

On a side note whilst I've done loads of programming development work in C# on GIS systems and thus I knew immediately what the tile levels referred to, your average user might not have a clue. Perhaps a help button to explain what the tile levels are would be useful for those users.

 
Absolutely. In an upcoming version this screen will be completely changed basically making it a one tap download that users won't have to think about. It will also download all zoom levels as we are changing the algorithm to only download tiles in a radius around caches.
 

When I was navigating to the cache the only real frustration I had was I couldn't find out how to get the map to orientate to the direction I was facing. On the Groundspeak apps there is an option where you can be navigating to the cache on map view and as you turn on the spot the map turns with you so you can orientate yourself on the map. On Cachly I couldn't work out how to do this so I found my self switching to compass view then going back to map view and manually orientatng the map then navigating.

 
This feature can be turned on by tapping the current location button to toggle its "modes". There is No Follow, Follow and Follow with Heading. 

When caching I love the ability to write short logs with a note about anything I saw etc. A few words as a reminder for my proper write up later. I do this as a found it log and save for later. One thing that I've always thought would be an improvement to a geocaching app would be if these locally saved found it logs then marked the icon on the map to indicate I'd found it. This is particularly useful when doing a lot of caching in an area seeing the icons change as you cache is very helpful. Perhaps a green tick icon to indicate it's found but not a "found it" logged on website.

I appreciate that if I actually sent the log then the icons would change however I prefer to write longer more interesting logs when I get home. So having the map update as I go is helpful so I can see if I've missed any when trying to clear out an area.

Similarly seeing a DNF icon as an option whether from a past visit or this one would be handy. Perhaps a standard blue sad face for a logged DNF and a red cross for one logged but not submitted?

 
Both these have been requested by other users as well and are something we are working on. Showing that a cache has been found, but not yet submitted the log wouldn't be hard. The DNF feature is something a bit harder since Groundspeak doesn't support this in their API. So we will need to use our own server to handle the DNF's for all users.
 

I do a fair bit of caching where I drive round an area stop get out and clear the caches there then move on. Driving solo point to point like this I put the phone in a holder on the dashboard and navigate so it works a bit like an in car sat nav. On the other apps I could have it so that it shows my location and cache location with the line on the map Cachly does this already.

What the other app does too is to zoom in as you get that bit closer, thus as I drive closer and closer to goal the screen resizes to keep the line occupying the majority of the screen. This makes it very easy to see when you are getting closer and most importantly it means it's a hands free operation navigating closer. Thus I get to see the maps zoom in when I am getting close and can glance to see how far it is any turn offs etc. without taking my hands off the wheel. Again I assume that whilst navigating it's downloading the next level of tiles in the background so that the zooming in is very smooth.

 
Great idea about the zooming. Will get this added to our feature list.
 

I couldn't work out how to tell the accuracy level of my GPS in the app. I've since learnt this morning that I can do that by tapping on the coordinates in the compass which is nice but again I use the map navigation, any chance of seeing accuracy figure say perhaps at top where is has cache name and Xm from your current location Ym accuracy?

 

Absolutely. Working on some additional ways to show accuracy throughout the app. Should be included in our next release.

 

Anyway many thanks for the App I'm very confident I'll make it my default app. I've heard great things about how keen you are to hear from users about their experiences and get ideas for improving the app. As a fellow developer (I've written desktop apps for Family History use) I know how getting feedback from users can be a great incentive to do more and improve the app although I also know it can be a challenge too when they start demanding things  :) I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my feedback and I've no doubt I'll be an advocate for people to use your app in future, especially at this period when Groundspeak seem to have lost their way.

 

Thanks for using Cachly! I highly value user feedback, so I really appreciate all of your comments and questions. My goal is to make the best Geocaching app out there, and this can't be done without users help!

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I was using Open Cycle Map as I find this one to be great for forest trails. I'll see if I can come up with a better diagnostic during future use to help identify the issue. Oddly it mostly seemed to be when we had 4G coverage. Julie hadn't downloaded any offline maps, I had.

I was out yesterday afternoon and evening with TeamBucki you may know her as Julie as I understand she has emailed a few times lately. We are both keen on the app as we feel Groundspeak are leaving users behind. The tip on rotating the map will make a massive difference, thanks for that, I thought it would be present and just my inability to find the option. Julie would particularly like an option to lock the map from rotating at all as several times she would pan or zoom (with two thumbs) and it would rotate which annoyed her.

Some observations on joint use. A few times we found the navigation distance seemed to "freeze" we would navigate to somewhere and the distance wouldn't go down. We were clearly getting closer to goal as compass arrow would move but the distance didn't change. In one instance I started out at 258m from cache and was still 258m away at GZ. Closing and restarting the app fixed this.

Whilst on the hints or description page with the phone in my pocket it would go back onto lock screen requiring fingerprint to unlock (iPhone 6s) perfectly normal behaviour nothing wrong there. However this unlocking seemed quite unresponsive and frequently took a while (5-10 seconds) to unlock. This only ever happened when it went to sleep from the app. What may be related is that we both felt battery life was less using the app so there may be merit in some profiling to identify any processor heavy activity. I'm not sure if the iOS API allows you to see if the phone is asleep if it does it might be an idea to disable some processes whilst it is.

We are both quite impressed and are keen to assist app succeed, the only major niggle therefore was the distance not refreshing thing. Julie took some screenshots of the app screen to help to demonstrate what she meant.

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Ah, OpenCycle Map. That one I have noticed is slow to load and it seems it is that way on Wifi too. I think that the map provider just has a slow server.

 

I will be emailing Julie back in a few about her questions.

 

Strange about the freezing. I will be looking into that issue.

 

Could you email our support email address so that I can ask a few more questions? Thanks!

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