5
I Was Wrong About CoMaps.. - BlinMaster (peertube.wtf)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/CoMaps@sopuli.xyz
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 38 points 7 months ago (9 children)

TLDR: Guy discounts CoMaps because you have to download the map. Tries other things but eventually circles back, downloads just his region and likes it a lot.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 9 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    I had this exact comment chain with someone here. They were just hardcore confused and said it was missing all these features and whatnot until they realized they hadnt downloaded any maps.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    That does validate this comment:

    https://lemmy.zip/comment/25702290

    Seemed like a pretty simple offline first app (contrasted to the usual online first app) to me so I don't really know what could help. I suspect the app needs feedback from those people or people that invested time walking those people through the mental switch

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

    I mean its kind of impossibe to miss when yiu actually use it. When you try to zoom into any part of the map it wont let you and just shows you this:

    And if you try to create any route that involves areas where you dont have the maps downloaded it shows you this:

    Which admittadely is a horrible error message but most people would just click download and then it works.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    That is bizarre, how else would he see maps unless they were downloaded? Have them all included in the app for the entire world and have it be 500GB install or something?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I mean the most popular map apps just download relevant data as it's needed so that's probably the assumption most people are coming in with.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago

    Ah I see, so it wasn't about the downloads but that he had to tap a button.

    It's a much better system with manual downloads anyways, since you know you have all the maps for a region available offline, vs with most mapping apps you have no idea and could just end up with no maps loaded.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    Also, if you want to toggle between online and offline maps and don't care if the project is open source, then GuruMaps does this. (And if you hike the contour lines are more detailed with a smaller step between them when you zoom in)

    For just online, like with a desktop, then Cartes is an option but they are still adding languages so some things are still in French:

    https://cartes.app/

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Could this be a UX issue? If I'm not wrong, comaps aims to easy of use. Maybe the app should not expect that a user know that he need to download a map? I'm not a comaps user (osmand) so sorry if this I just said is already addressed.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago*

    I'd argue the UI is simple. You zoom into a place and it offers to download. Like all maps you can click to zoom to your location and that will trigger the correct download too

    I travel a lot so download more than most and the UI is simple, it's just offline first not online first. The video creator seemed to have an ideological issue with that and didn't try but when they did, they liked it. I find videos like this infuriating though so probably missed some points.

    It's not impossible an initial modal could help here but I've used it too long to know and it's pretty easy to click through to report a bug for anyone reading this that is new to the app and was confused but still remembers what would have helped

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent