#4219: Android usability issues
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Reporter: stevage | Owner: potlatch-dev@…
Type: defect | Status: new
Priority: minor | Milestone:
Component: potlatch2 | Version:
Keywords: |
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Ok, so getting Potlatch2 working on Android phones probably isn't a big
priority :) But I just tried on my Galaxy Note (1280x800 screen - so
actually feasible). Currently it's not usable. Well, not with the standard
browser anyway. But the Flash all loaded just fine.
Issues I noticed:
- the initial help screen can't be closed because the button is off screen
and you can't scroll it.
- since there's no keyboard, there's no way to do lots of useful things.
eg, maximise: these could be shown in a dropdown menu.
- since there's no keyboard, you can't really edit. no backspace is a
killer: there needs to be a button or something.
- since there's no real distinction between mousing over, dragging, and
clicking, editing is a bit harder. thank god for the floating toolbox -
otherwise there would be no way to stop extending a way.
- speaking of which, the floating toolbox is too big and could turn into a
dropdown box.
- the side panel takes up a lot of space, and should probably become more
or less modal: it's hidden except when you click it, then it fully
expands. Once I'd fully expanded it, it's actually pretty usable - could
choose all the options.
- the stacked panel view works a lot better than the tabbed view, so could
be the default.
- typing into the advanced tab didn't seem to work. I could type entries,
but they didn't stay after the keyboard went away. I think this might have
to do with the autocomplete. You get a similar problem when using the
"search for place" function - you type a word, but only end up with the
first letter.
- And the keyboard tried to exist with a smunched up tiny version of the
map, which looked pretty bad and not useful.
- for some reason, the address bar didn't hide automatically. (this can
apparently be fixed in javascript).
- can accidentally drag the floating toolbox out of reach - pretty hard to
drag because the draggable area is so tiny.
- pop up windows (eg, edit relation) are often too big for the display,
making buttons out of reach. (Sometimes you can get around this by
rotating back to portrait mode)
All of that aside...I actually think there's a lot of potential. Pretty
much all of these issues seem like little quirks that could be fixed with
detecting user agent and making some changes to the HTML and/or
javascript. And actually drawing ways with Samsung's stylus (sorry, "S
Pen") is a joy. Yes, that's right - it's actually *better* than using a
mouse. Without a mouse it's still ok - accuracy was surprisingly good.
--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4219>
OpenStreetMap <http://www.openstreetmap.org/>
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