[Final] Report Sharon Levenzon Kuninin
A very minor issue but I think this should be added somewhere - at first I didn't know the project was an android application and tried cloning it and opening it with eclipse/IntelliJ instead. After understanding this is an android application, downloading it was very convenient (it is on the play store) and the installation finished without any problems.
The start activity is designed nicely and is very easy to use. All the buttons and controls are intuitive and work as intended. As was written in the google doc, trying to use navigation without being logged in shows an error. For this reason, I think it would be better to have the log in/sign up activity as the start up activity, and direct to the main activity after the user has logged in.
I was expecting to have a bad experience signing up to the system, but was delightfuly surprised. Signing up was very intuitive and fast, and was instantly logged in. Logging out and in again worked as expected as well.
When closing the application and running it again, the application doesn't automatically re-log me in and I have to do it manually. I think it would be a better user experience if the user would stay logged in until explicitly logging out.
Very intuitive to use the map (dragging and zooming works as expected), clicking on the map brings the desired screen and the location is automatically detected, while displaying a street view of the selected location (might seem like minor features, but they improve the user experience).
With a good wifi, the navigation process finishes quickly and displayes the suggested route. I think it would be nice to give more information regarding the grading system (is a grade of 5 the best and 1 the worst, or the other way around?).
Something I really liked is the rotating circles that give the user the feel that something is being done in the background, instead of the application freezing until a route is found:
I would suggest that if the calculation takes too long, it would stop and display a message asking to try again.
I think a more intuitive way to add new locations would be to have a "Add New Location" button directly when clicking on a location, instead of having to click on "Nearby Locations" and only then have the option to do it.
Other than that, adding a new location is pretty simple and the user is automatically directed to the reviews page to add new reviews after adding a new location.
I think a must have feature is the ability to set the initial location as the current user's location:
Other than that, the search works as intended and displays all the found locations on the map.
Easy to do, the reviews stay and don't dissapear - works good.
A very intuitive and good looking design, all buttons are responsive and most actions finish fast (with the exception of navigation when having a bad wifi signal, but this is to be expected).
Some suggestions:
- Make the error messages prettier and have the same design as the other screens.
- Put more information about the grading system (is 5 most accessible and 1 the least, or the other way around).
- Add button to return map focus to the current location of the user.
- Show custom locations when doing an advanced search.
- Keep the user logged in when closing and re-opening the app.
To anyone reviewing this project - most problems I have experienced (and were solved thanks to the support of the developers) were due to bad internet connectivity. Once I switched to a better wifi or went outside and used cellular internet, most (if not all) problems were fixed and the application became more reactive.