OpenStreetMap
here are my points where I think that Potlatch is not intuitive and
could be improved:
- in general, most functionality that is available should not only work with keyboard commands, but with icons: In this way, you know what possibilities you have. At least one should list somewhere which keyboard shortcuts are available in the current context and what action they will perform.
- when Potlatch loads data, it is not clear weather it is already finished
(and there are so many streets missing in this area), or if it is still loading
something. An icon should indicate that Potlatch is currently loading and not yet finished with rendering the map.
-this is especially true when you hit the history button (H)
- GPS-Tracks shall have a label and one should be able to switch them on and off individually.
- there should be a history of the edits one made in the current session. I found that it was very easy to accidentally add some point to the map and then loose it in the chaos of lines and dots. I want to look into the history and find these wrong-edits.
Discussion
Comment from TomH on 14 May 2008 at 00:29
Potlatch tells you in the top right hand corner whether or not it is currently loading data.
Comment from Warden on 14 May 2008 at 08:54
Great, that's what I was looking for.
Comment from Richard on 14 May 2008 at 09:59
Thanks for the feedback!
On the keyboard commands, yes, absolutely. Though I would say too many UI designers see icons themselves as a panacea - a bunch of confusing-looking icons is not much more intuitive than keyboard shortcuts, so it needs thought. (Microsoft Office is probably the best example of slapping a load of crap in a toolbar and thinking it makes the program easy to use.)
Historically Potlatch has been fixed-size (700x600) and there hasn't actually been any room for extra icons - it's only in the last couple of months that it's grown with your browser window. This means that now we can start looking at adding icons where sensible.
(There's a list of keyboard shortcuts on the wiki, of course.)
With GPS tracks we're generally wary about exposing too much information - there are privacy concerns about knowing exactly who was where. So there may be some improvement that can happen here, but it probably won't be to the level you're asking for.
As of Potlatch 0.9 there is now a history-type "undo" feature - it's a new icon in the bottom left. It's not perfect as of yet but it should go some way towards what you're looking for.