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Snuck in a reply prior to your last post with some thoughts. Came up with a few more:
1.) Notification period selection is a little difficult to adjust due to small buttons.
2.) Might be nice to tweak notifications per question rather than being all encompassing. For example, if I ask a question about a good bar while in a given city, take the advice of a respondant, and then leave the city with no plans to return, I may no longer want to receive updates to that question. But I also don't necessarily want to turn off all updates to other, more relevant questions. Make sense? Perhaps I'm not understanding how the current system works either.
3.) I'm thinking some custom views for the homescreen would be great as the app moves forward...just thinking ahead here, not a negative critique whatsoever. So as soon as I open the app, I might want to see "My Questions" in threaded format in the order of most recently asked. Then place other options/settings/answer questions/etc in the "menu" button on the phone itself.
great ideas iowbowtech... to address your suggestions
1) I will def make the buttons bigger... wrote it down will be in the next release
2) I see your point.... right now you can 'delete' the question which will remove it from the system, and subsequently stop all notifications... but maybe this is not correct... would you prefer if I
a) make it so you can stop notifications on a given question or
b) indicate which questions (even ones you did not ask) you would like to receive notifications for... thoughts?
3) that does sound cool... will noodle it around... and see what i can come up with... will be a little while down the line though..
Threaded conversations... initially (i.e. before i released this a 1 1/2 ago) i tried and tried to make it have threaded conversations... but like you said with multiple questions it proved to be so much on one screen i could not tell what was what... if you can think of any way to layout it out...please do let me know and i'll implement asap as i think it would be a great thing... the way i have tried to layout is like a forum... just with geography of course..
I was thinking the "b" option you listed above for the same reason you mentioned. A person may find someone has recently asked a question you are interested in also. Perfect setup for that.
How about this for a kinder, gentler threading plan...
On each of the questions, add a response count that is seen on the main questions overview screen. That way you can determine if its worth pressing on the question to see other people's responses. Or it lets you know that you'd be the first respondant. Then if you have interest, I could see a subscribe or join this question sort of option that would allow the user to receive updates on it. Also if the number of subscribers could be seen by all, it would indicate which questions are of interest to many people. This might also serve to cut down on constantly repeated questions and maybe even save on server space lol.
I love it... that sounds perfect... i will def implement it that way.... so just to make sure i have this right...
1) each question will have a button that allows you to subscribe... and also a response count... even your own questions you can unsubscribe from
2) you can turn on/off notifications even for your own questions.
3) each question will show who is subscribed to it... this will take me a little while as the current implementation all subscriptions are stored by the client (i.e. phone) ... so a re-factoring is in order.. but will do
In the future I was also thinking of a search capability so you can search for questions in other areas of the countries and listen in on the threads... i.e. you want to follow the chatter from a football game or are traveling somewhere and you want to see what other people have to say....
Thanks for all the advice... it really is a huge help...
The threaded reply is definately the way to go, even if it Is just to thank someone. You might want to ask the person who replied another question. I asked a question about a farm park that I was taking the kids to. I had a reply and would of liked a few more details.
amlothi.... thanks for the suggestions... i'm always trying to improve the layout and flow of the software and I have found user feedback is always the best way to get good ideas...
Regarding the main screen as a map, what I was envisioning was something like when you search for Restaurants on google maps. In other words, each question that has been asked will have a location marker on the map. It will also have a radius, set by the asker, that could show as a shaded circle on the map.
The marker, and the radius, could have different colors depending on how recent the question is, and if it has any answers.
When I ask a question, I can pick a point on the map and set the radius.
Then, when I want to answer questions, I can go to the area I am in or know something about. Maybe I want to visit a new area, and I want to see other peoples' questions and answers near that place also.
This kind of visual interface would be very appealing to me. Also, we could have a "list view" option for the currently zoomed area on the map to make it easy to scroll through questions.
In addition, as mentioned above, a way to see my questions, my answers, and maybe to "star" items that you want to review again later.
To help the map from getting cluttered, you could set expiration dates for questions, or have rules where users can choose to see questions asked in the last 1 year, 30 days, 1 week, etc.
thanks amlothi... I tried to draw a quick version of what I think your saying the dashboard should look like.... please excuse the drawing... i am a horrible artist... but I think it gives the general idea.... the map will display the questions in your area... the search box will allow you to search for a question based on some keyword....
Upon opening up the search page you will see a map and a list of questions... as the map moves the questions in the list will correspondingly adjust... i will include options to subscribe to questions... this will allow you to receive notifications when a new response is received and save it in a list so you can quickly view them... clicking on a question in the map or list will open up its responses.
Does this sound correct... any other ideas suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
Nice to see the zoom to implemented I am finding the options buttons to big and covering part of the question. Apart from this, I think the layout is right. NOt sure about map as main screen.
brooke... i really don't follow... the gps will use satelites or the network or whatever is determined the best approach to find your location. the app will only turn gps on when you request questions to answer. the only criteria i set for the gps is that it does not cost money... i.e. if it is determined by the android os that it will cost you money then i indicate that i won't be able to find your gps location... i have tested it extensively inside buildings, etc and have not seen an issues. what kind of phone are you using?
Wait ... Just tried again and GPS was invoked. Seemed to find me, went retrieving questions. Then, error, asking to be sure I had connectivity.
Next I turned off my wifi, using mobile data only ... Questions appeared. I think I have a problem. My wifi doesn't seem tombe registering as a network connectionm....
thanks amlothi... I tried to draw a quick version of what I think your saying the dashboard should look like.... please excuse the drawing... i am a horrible artist... but I think it gives the general idea.... the map will display the questions in your area... the search box will allow you to search for a question based on some keyword....
Upon opening up the search page you will see a map and a list of questions... as the map moves the questions in the list will correspondingly adjust... i will include options to subscribe to questions... this will allow you to receive notifications when a new response is received and save it in a list so you can quickly view them... clicking on a question in the map or list will open up its responses.
Does this sound correct... any other ideas suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks again,
Cheers,
AskTheLocals,
That looks like pretty much what I'm talking about. What do you think? I'm not sure how difficult it would be to implement, but IMO it makes the app very user friendly.
hi amlothi...
I think its do able... however... it will probably take me a couple iterations/releases to get it out as there are some underlying things in the code that need to change. I def like the concept of displaying a map with the questions. The only thing I'm not sure about is how to display the area the question is associated with... You indicated to highlight the area the question is associated with... however, i think if multiple questions are in the same area people might have a problem distinguishing the area as they will overlap... so i was thinking maybe just display a marker and then when you click on the marker displaying the area its associated with... thoughts?
Would it be possible to limit the map to showing the 50 most recent questions or something? Or, provide some drop down filters for things like "Date asked", "answered status", "category" or something so you can filter them more specifically?
I just released a new version of AskTheLocals... The new version now allows you to interactively browse questions in the repository. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
thanks wownelly... i think adding a profile is a great idea... I've started the implementation and hopefully it will be out within the next couple of releases... thanks again for the feedback.
wownelly... thanks for the suggestions... that feature I have already implemented. It will be released this weekend after its completely tested.... thanks for the suggestions there greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately that sliding drawer is also used for the list view... If I changed it left to right it would cover the questions in the list. Having it in different locations for the map and list I think would also be a tad confusing.
thanks interwebs... if you have any questions don't hesistate to contact us... In terms of running it on 2g... I have ran it on a flaky 1g connection once... as can be expected it was a little slow and flaky.. one of the things on our future todo list is add pre-caching to support unreliable or slow connections....
Maybe you could talk to the folks that run the city-data sites and work something out with them to increase your user base? They might even want you to rebrand the app with the city-data name or something.
That is a very large local user base that you could connect with, and they do a lot of the same things your app is meant for.
Thanks agent0064life... great idea... what database are you referring too... do you have a link or some contact information? I'm always looking for partnering with organizations... also... if anyone else is interested in partnering with us please let me know...
Thanks agent0064life... great idea... what database are you referring too... do you have a link or some contact information? I'm always looking for partnering with organizations... also... if anyone else is interested in partnering with us please let me know...
Cheers,
AskTheLocals
I don't know how to contact the owners, but here's the site:
just released a new version that fixed any bugs that I received. If you are using the existing copy you should upgrade and if you have not tried askthelocals you should check it out...
drdoom.... sorry about that... i accidently posted a beta apk... i've uploaded the release version. and you should now be able to register without a problem
Briefly, instead of sending emails to a person (i.e. john.doe@yahoo.com) it allows you to send emails to a geographic area. I.e. Send an email to all people at the local park asking him/her if they have seen your lost pet.
I am finding the options buttons to big and covering part of the question. Apart from this, I think the layout is right. NOt sure about map as main screen.
