GPS suggestion: maximize screen real estate

aoLhaTer · 03-11-2006, 12:57 AM

I think the GPS screen should maximize its screen real estate and show more map. With the size screens we have, every little bit counts
I understand that theres a full screen switch but at the loss of all the controls. This would keep the controls but still show more map

What I imagine for the GPS screen

Original for comparison

(Thanks bishooman for the original screenshot [and skin])

scott_fx · 03-11-2006, 01:56 AM

that is a great suggestion/

cold_fusion · 03-11-2006, 08:13 AM

Sorry aoLhaTer I kinda furthered on your idea, hope you don't mind!

This moves the controls to the left of the screen under the nav menu, further increasing the verticle area available. However this is at a cost of horizontal space, but personally I feel this is wasted ATM.

For the buttons on the left i see that either:
* they could all be made bigger to fill up the blank space
* or the nav menu button made smaller to increase the horizontal map size slighty
* or there maybe room for 1 or 2 more buttons in there.

Anyway I'm sure you get the general idea. Of course this is all for the new destinator plugin (D5 / D6 ?). Sorry about the poor photochop, I don't do this often

scott_fx · 03-11-2006, 08:32 AM

that looks great! could this be done with a skin alone? sorry for my ignorance on the matter, I havent done any research on skinning so i'm not sure what the limitations are.

jollyeskimo · 03-11-2006, 09:18 AM

not sure if the implementation is possible with CF, but check out these screens of the Kuo's Roadrunner skin with embedded iGuidance:

http://www.kuo.freakstylehosting.com...s/skin/gps.jpg
http://www.kuo.freakstylehosting.com.../skin/gps2.jpg

It's simple, but I find that it works terrific. The button on the right of "prev" maximizes and restores iGuidnace, but in reality it just links between the two different screens that both embed iGuidance.

Heck, looking at the skin that you guys posted, you can trim quite a bit of space by using smaller buttons, and less of them. The circular buttons on the bottom could be trimmed to less than half the height if they were changed to short rectangular-ish ones, and same for the nav-menu row. You could stack the ones under the nav menu in cold_fusion's pic in a single column, and with some trimming on both the top and bottom you could get a significant increase in the GPS area....

b8bboi · 03-11-2006, 09:57 AM

man whoever came up with that mail slot design has no concept of usability.

Floatingpi · 03-11-2006, 11:03 AM

I have been looking at the skining and I think it is possible to change things around. You would have to only really modify the GPS skin alone. I also hate how narrow things are. I am currently working on a skin that isn't a mail slot.

krog · 03-11-2006, 11:57 AM

putting the buttons to the side instead of the top is a great idea...

ebomb · 03-11-2006, 12:28 PM

The comp at the beginning of this thread is, from what I understand, how D5 and D6 are going to look. The mail slot orientation is cramped, agreed, but wouldn't you go fullscreen if you wanted to stay in GPS? Is it so bad in that view? Making the buttons on the nav easy to use while driving is paramount to anything else in the UI. Making them half od their current size would give you more room for the map, but it would make them practically impossible to hit comfortably and consistently. Maybe there's a way, like in the DVD player, to have the nav disappear after 3-5 seconds of rest, or with a button-click?

ebomb · 03-11-2006, 12:29 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by b8bboi

man whoever came up with that mail slot design has no concept of usability.

I'm all for constructive criticism, but I don't see any value in just being a jerk. Do you think you're helping?

justintime · 03-11-2006, 12:31 PM

Outstanding... I think Cold FUsion's suggestion is SPOT ON!

This kind of resembles the 1.5 button location. This would be the perfect layout for a non-fullscreen GPS mode. Then there's always the FS mode which is my favorite.

Well done man. I hope David/eBomb see this and consider redesigning their interface/skin based on your suggestion.

EDIT: Well I see eBomb is paying attention!

krog · 03-11-2006, 12:35 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by ebomb

The comp at the beginning of this thread is, from what I understand, how D5 and D6 are going to look. The mail slot orientation is cramped, agreed, but wouldn't you go fullscreen if you wanted to stay in GPS? Is it so bad in that view? Making the buttons on the nav easy to use while driving is paramount to anything else in the UI. Making them half od their current size would give you more room for the map, but it would make them practically impossible to hit comfortably and consistently. Maybe there's a way, like in the DVD player, to have the nav disappear after 3-5 seconds of rest, or with a button-click?

I don't think you need to make them smaller... simply putting them from the top to the left would help a lot. The map needs to have some usable aspectratio in every mode. As everything is done for widescreens, i think additional stuff should be put on the side.

As far as I can see, in cold_fusions' example the buttons are as big as in the original...

justintime · 03-11-2006, 12:35 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by ebomb

Maybe there's a way, like in the DVD player, to have the nav disappear after 3-5 seconds of rest, or with a button-click?

eBomb,

I was thinking about how to achieve this, but the problem is how do we make the buttons re-appear when you need them?

With a regular mouse, it's an easy solution: you could have them reappear whenever the mouse is moved. Unfortunately, with touchscreens, there is no such thing as 'mouse movement', if you know what I mean. It would always require a first 'tap' and then a second one to hit the buttons...

I really can't find a way to make that work, but I really do like the idea of having the buttons only appear when you need them. hrmm...

cold_fusion · 03-11-2006, 01:28 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by ebomb

....The mail slot orientation is cramped, agreed, but wouldn't you go fullscreen if you wanted to stay in GPS? Is it so bad in that view? Making the buttons on the nav easy to use while driving is paramount to anything else in the UI. Making them half od their current size would give you more room for the map, but it would make them practically impossible to hit comfortably and consistently....

Hi ebomb,

In my example I used the buttons exactly as in the original skin files. If anything I hoped to demonstrate that with a GPS screen the vertical size is more important than horizontal as most people have the GPS set so "UP" on the map is their current heading...and knowing what is coming up in front of you is more important than what's to the sides.

In the example it shows that you can actually make the current buttons larger then they currently are (expand them so they fill in the gaps), yet have a more useable map area. With the available screen area you can re-arrange the components for more efficient use of the space, and also improve the UI for easier button hitting.

Fullscreen GPS is awesome and definately the best mode when wanting to view the most area, but that should mean you cut down on the useability of the normal-screen view?

As noted before you can't currently switch between fullscreen GPS and media easily, which seems to hit high on most peoples list. I believe a possible dicussed solution was to have access to the "Main Menu" on all fullscreen app toolbars.

Hope this helps

Motoko · 03-11-2006, 04:37 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by ebomb

The comp at the beginning of this thread is, from what I understand, how D5 and D6 are going to look. The mail slot orientation is cramped, agreed, but wouldn't you go fullscreen if you wanted to stay in GPS? Is it so bad in that view? Making the buttons on the nav easy to use while driving is paramount to anything else in the UI. Making them half od their current size would give you more room for the map, but it would make them practically impossible to hit comfortably and consistently. Maybe there's a way, like in the DVD player, to have the nav disappear after 3-5 seconds of rest, or with a button-click?

have you checked out FreeDrive? the way that is done is perfect. it has the dipearing menu