iFly GPS Forum

I spent a number of years beta testing for one of the major Windows EFB vendors. One thing I learned is that adding features has downsides. First, it make the UI more complicated, often driving buttons to be smaller and/or more crowded. Second, the additions to the UI are rarely where you would make them if you were starting with a clean sheet of paper for UI design. Instead they end up scabbed on to menus or screens where they really don't fit very well, making the UI even more difficulat to learn and use. Vendors are loathe to rip-up and re-do a UI to clean it up, fearing the wrath and possible loss from the installed base.

Unfortunately, the features race in tablet EFBs guarantees rampant featureitis and consequent UI deterioration. So I have not chimed in here much with feature requests.

But I do have a suggestion.

With charts on EFBs we have the alternative of looking at a tiny chart area and being able to read the legends or we can zoom back and see more of the chart but are able to read nothing. One place this can become an issue is when the nice man says "Bugsmasher N12345 I have a reroute for your, advise ready to copy," then he gives you an intersection that you never heard of.

So, how about a long hold on the zoom + or - buttons to bring up a "zoom to waypoint" option? The user could then select the type of waypoint and type it in. All of the search logic already exists for flight planning anyway. The user then hits "Go" and the map display comes up with the selected waypoint centered and at a magnification that allows reading the map text.

From that point, nothing needs to change. The user can add the point to his flight plan, zoom back as necessary to see his little airplane and his course line, etc. Everything he might want to do is already in the UI.

The new code to do this would seem to be minimal. (But of course all things are easy to someone who does not have to do them.) The only UI damage would be loss of the automatic repeat on the zoom buttons, and the feature would not intrude anywhere else in the UI.

We've actually had some internal conversation to look at either splitting the app or having a Simple and Advanced mode, but that was shelved for the time being. As for the Touch and Hold on the Zoom +/-. that is already taken, holding the Zoom +/- will enter rapid zoom. There may be somewhere else to make this happen. Sounds like an interesting suggestion to consider. Thanks for the feedback and suggestion. Added to the Wish-List.

Well, my thought was that one of the things zoom-to-waypoint would do for a VFR pilot is to make it easy to zoom to a specific airport or VOR. (It can be hard to find an airport when zoomed out.) From that point the UI gives him/her lots of options for information and flight planning. Once in a great while, too, a VFR pilot might actually want an "IFR" waypoint. For example, KELSI intersection near Chicago is depicted on the sectionals and it is a handy VFR waypoint for those who want to stay out of the CHI TRACON's hair.

RE UI complexity I agree in principle (obviously) but my suggested implementation/long push on either zoom button really keeps the feature completely out of the way for people who don't want to use it. So I claim innocence on that one!