Some thoughts

[andreshs1]

Hi Iiker

I think that this is a great tool for those of us that do not have the time to be tinkering with software anymore

That being said, I feel it will be beneficial to see some changes on the UI with the goal of improving the user experience:

• A Saillogger user should not be required to create a 2nd account just to have access to the forum
• I live in Hong Kong, yet my computer settings are all in English, nonetheless, every time I open one of the pages, I get a prompt to translate to English. It would be good if the page could read the default language setting from the computer
• In addition to the automatic recording of the logs and constant monitoring of the boat, the timelapse feature connects with the Social Media community, as it allows to post the videos of your travels in real-time. That being said:
  • The timelapse window is not intuitive, as you click on it, suddenly is playing something. But it is not obvious how to select what to play. Thus, I would suggest merging this window with the customization and export options. Providing a single user-friendly experience. Either a small section on the left or right where the user can select all the different options (in addition to the ones you already have):
    • Boat icon selection, e.g.: Sailboat, motor boat, jetski, dinghy, etc., and side of the same
    • Replay speed and size modified to a slider control, like the one on the computer mouse
    • Adding photos of points of interest or icons along the timelapse track (this might not be easy, but it would differentiate your app from the competitors)
    • In addition to the GPX files, which are very useful, most users will be interested on posting the videos directly in different platforms, e.g.: Instagram, thus, you need to consider adding the feature to export to the phone gallery or computer
• Looking at the monitoring page:
  • the look & feel is dated, not really appealing. I would suggest updating the color scheme. Also, might be a 'nice to have' being able to select the background and color schemes per user
  • When loading the page, it does not auto fit into one screen, we need to scroll up and down, while there is plenty of wasted space around the map. I would consider having a row or column with all the parameters under monitoring on top of the map as a single row, or left/right.
  • Consider what other information would be good to have from a user perspective, e.g.: I would like to see the GPS coordinates.
  • There are 1000s of users in scope, as you can target those with Victron equipment, therefore, it would be interesting to be able to select from the Victron GX or Pi what feeds to send and then in your UI, to be able to select those to display
  • The maintenance page is super interesting, as we often forget what to do when, or what we did. Yet, I would suggest, like in the timelapse page, to have a frame on the right side with the different options, instead of having to go to the top menu to change the page back and forth. You can also enrich the prompts, e.g.: in the categories tab, the user can add additional ones, yet, this is not intuitive, why not adding a message saying so? From a user experience point of view, I don't want to have to click in 20 pages to get the same action done.
    Hope this comments help, I truly think that the application has great potential, just some tweaking would help opening to a wider audience.
    I have shown it to some of my boating mates in HK, and they like the idea, but I don't think that they would subscribe as is.

I have always thought that look & feel is 90% of the value of the application, it does not matter what great features we build, if the user does not find it easy to use, it will not be well received. Take the analogy of having dinner, 1st impressions matter, if the food is not appealing through your eyes, regardless of how good it tastes, you will not fully enjoy the experience.

Cheers
Andres
SV Karma

[ilker]

Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed recommendations Andres, really appreciate it.

1. I agree on the need to have the same login for Saillogger and forums, but it was a bit challenging since these work on different systems and data models. I didn't spent too much time integrating them but I agree this is suboptimal, I will re-look at this.

2. I wasn't aware of this actually and web page content doesn't directly dictate how Google behaves. I pushed a change to add default language to all pages, can you let me know if this made a difference?

3. Agree on your points on design, I think the entire design can use an uplift. We are actively looking for a designer to bring onboard.

Thanks again for taking the time to provide feedback!

[andreshs1]

Hi there

I have tested and seems that the language pack fix did the trick

Good luck finding a designer, I wish I could help, but I have not been actively coding for years. That being said, in banking, we often reach to university students as interns to do small developments/projects. What language are you using for the front end?
Anyway, feel free to send me an email directly with details, happy to see if I can help

Cheers

[ilker]

Hi Andres, we just launched a revamped front page! A revamp to all pages is coming soon too! Thank you for the feedback and being a valued user.

[andreshs1]

@ilker Happy New Year!

Sorry, my recovery took longer than expected and I have been completely disconnected

Yes, love the new interface, Thanks!

Quick question, I did a trip this weekend, but did not realize that my SignalK seems to have been on a faulty state for a number of days. Is there a way to enable an alert when the contributions to SailLogger stop?

Regards
Andres

[ilker]

Happy new year @andreshs1 ! Hope you feel better.

That is unfortunate, did Signal K completely stop then? Saillogger normally notifies you after an hour when a monitoring device stops communicating. However if that was a GPS specific failure, i.e. monitoring device was contacting the cloud but not submitting position reports, it might have been missed.

Regardless, we introduced some new functionality to the plugin a few releases ago specifically for this reason. We have been waiting to get enough adoption (it takes some time for our users to upgrade to more recent versions of the plugin) to enable alarming on missed position reports. So net-net, hopefully this should be coming soon.

[andreshs1]

OK, thanks

I was just thinking whether it would be possible to add an anchor alarm notification, so when we go away from the boat, we can get a sms / whatsapp / email notification warning of the anchor dragging

Cheers

[mmor]

Supporting Andres idea. Tried several solutions none of them was really satisfying. I "perfect" anchor alarm should have a real time remote notification. Not limited to SMS but including push notifications on remote devices.
Just my 2 Cents.
Cheers

[admin]

@andreshs1 , @mmor , you asked we listened!

Just launched a new feature for "geofencing": Introducing Geofencing: Set Your Boundaries, Stay in Control!

Try it out and let us know what you think!

[ilker]

@andreshs1, additionally we also revamped the log details page with the new design and the entire site's color palette has been updated as well. Gradually all pages will be transitioned to the newer look and feel (that of monitoring page and now the log details page).