Saturday, March 01, 2014

Known issues in the app

I've been testing the new app (v0.95d) and see lots of room for improvement -- not just for future features, but for things to tighten up in the current build.

  • More descriptive actionbar icons; a new problem from the update.
  • Eruptions do not give the year. This is fine on the normal timeline since it's the last 24 hours of eruptions, but falls apart on geysers that have not erupted this year. This problem existed in the previous versions of the app. The problem has become worse with more data contributions.
  • Poor speed performance on the "guide to geysers" page (can lead to nonresponsive app); new problem with update. Particularly caused by the addition of small images next to the geyser name.
  • Strange user experience on the timeline -- back button behavior is inconsistent (can lead to full blown app crash; this has been reported twice so far). Personally, I think the whole timeline page needs to be revamped. This problem existed in the previous versions of the app, but has become worse with more data.
  • The time to interact with the server is so slow. This is an old problem; fixing it is straightforward and even fun, but requires lots of work.

If I can't fix these problems soon, I may remove the app from the Google Play store for a bit.

No comments: