Feature request: Tap map to select location, no auto-zoom

Ftjwinfs

Dear Ondrej, Dear Product Team,

thank you @Ondřej-Šutera for your response in another thread here. I understood, that there will be no general roll-back to the old version. That is understandable in some respect.

Still, please do not forget the concerns of us, your customers. I agree with you, that probably some complaints are just because "something has changed". But other complaints are substantial in my opinion, e.g. the issue with retrieving weather for a specific location.

My major concern is about the "user path" or "user journey" from starting the app to comparing wind predictions for different locations. This is very inefficient at the moment and prevents to efficiently study the weather forecast for a larger region.

Before ("old" app):

Open the app
Zoom & pan to relevant region
Tap on the screen somewhere -> a dot and a "flag" with the local weather appears at that location
Tap on the flag -> the time-line with the local weather appears at the lower screen
Tap on "wind" -> wind predictions of all models are shown

If I now want another location (old app):

Tap on different location -> wind predictions of all models are shown for this new location, map stays as it is
Tap on different location -> wind predictions of all models are shown for this new location, map stays as it is
and so on ...

Current version of app:

Open the app
Zoom & pan to relevant region, target location of interest with cross-hair
Tap on "forecast for this location" -> the time-line with the local weather appears at the lower screen (when doing this at low zoom levels (overview), the map is automatically zoomed to some high (detailed) zoom level)
Tap on "display as" -> selection menu "Basic, Waves, Wind, ..." opens
Select "wind" -> wind predictions of all models are shown

If I now want another location (new app):

Tap on "X" to actively close prediction time-line
Zoom & pan to new relevant region, target location of interest with cross-hair
Tap on "forecast for this location" -> the time-line with the local weather appears at the lower screen (when doing this at low zoom levels (overview), the map is automatically zoomed to some high (detailed) zoom level)
(- Do this again for each new location...)
Edit & Correction: The "move map" option solves this to some degree, still an issue, since the user is forced to move map, also auto-zoom issue persists.

So, where before changing location was a single tap on the location of interest (same map view), I now need to navigate to a new position (which means to move the map) to get the forecast there.

Probably this might sound as if this is no big deal. But during sailing the app is used several times a day to study the development of wether predictions for a specific region, which involves quickly switching between different locations in that region. To stay focussed it is crucial not being forced to change map view. Also, every unnecessary interaction should be avoided. Having to move the map, auto-zoom, lets me quickly loose focus while studying the weather.

In reference to the above, I kindly like to propose small changes to the new app.
Specifically my suggestions are:

Let users simply tap on the map to show the wind prediction time-line for the tapped location
Keep shown map region as it is (no auto-zoom) during selection of a new location

I guess, these are ideas, that could be implemented as small modifications with minimal impact on other new features of the app. Implementing this would bring user experience back to the efficient interaction that was provided by the old version of the app.

In summary: An efficient way of studying weather for a certain region is crucial. The old app was very good in this respect, for the new app the "user journey" to get to the same result (wind for a specific location) is too complicated.

So I kindly ask you to discuss/consider my suggestions and I hope you can see the above as constructive ideas.

I'm open to discussion. Please let me know, if anything of the above is unclear.
Probably you can see from the time I invested in my posts here how much I love your app and how much I like to also use it efficiently in the future ;-)
Thank you

Edit: Added reference to "move map" option.

Suty

@Ftjwinfs Thank you for your extensive message. I would like to only add that you don't have to close the wind forecast to move your location. There was a tapping on certain points in the older version, now you can move crosshair with one finger to change the location. Zoom in and out can't be counted, because this is in both versions.

Also this logic probably won't be changed neither, since this is the main functionality.

I would like to have better news for you from your point of view, but there are not any of them, unfortunately. I am sorry about that.

Ftjwinfs

@Ondřej-Šutera said in Feature request: Small modification of location selection process:

@Ftjwinfs Thank you for your extensive message. I would like to only add that you don't have to close the wind forecast to move your location. There was a tapping on certain points in the older version, now you can move crosshair with one finger to change the location. Zoom in and out can't be counted, because this is in both versions.

Hi @Ondřej-Šutera

I just checked: In the new version the cross-hair changes to a dot when having selected a certain location. It is not possible to change location "by moving cross-hair with one finger". I have to close the dialog to select a new position. (Pixel 5, android 13).
Please give detailed advice how to change position without closing the wind dialog.

Regarding the auto-zoom: I can not recall having seen this ever before, and I use Windy since years. I will check again later today with an older version that I have on another device.

Suty

@Ftjwinfs
Is it possible that you have turned this off?

Ftjwinfs

Oh, indeed. This was turned off. Now I can change position by moving the map.

But again, moving the map is extremely inefficient when changing weather for region over large regions.

Why not introduce a small option (similar to the "Move the map to change the forecast location" option) that is called "tap on map to change forcast location"?

Suty

@Ftjwinfs You are right that this change from tapping around the map, when the forecast detail was displayed, to moving can be in certain ways confusing. However, we had moving around the map with the picker in the last version when the detail was closed, so we decided to unite the behavior in this manner.

Ftjwinfs

@Ondřej-Šutera

Thank you for the background regarding location selection. Still, would it be possible, to reintroduce location selection by tapping as a user-selectable option? As I wrote above, this would have a significant positive effect on efficiency when studying weather for larger regions. I have the feeling, that many users would benefit. Its a bit hard to understand, what might be reasons not to do so.
I'm "begging you on my knees" to provide that option ;-)

Regarding auto-zoom: You wrote, that older versions already had this auto-zoom when selecting a specific location. I just checked this on a different device with Windy version 38.1.5.
I can not reproduce auto-zoom on that version: When I open Windy, go a map zoom that shows the northern hemisphere and then select a location, the map stays exactly as it is, only the weather details open. On that map I can then select different locations, the map stays as it is.
When I do the same on the new app, the map auto-zooms to some more detailed zoom that lets me loose focus of the total region I'm actually interested in.
Am I missing something here?

Wheats

@Ondřej-Šutera

Open the app
Make sure the forecast panel is closed
Zoom out
Move to location you want forecast for
click "Forecast for this location"
at this point it opens the forecast panel and zooms in closer to your selected point - instead of staying at the current zoom level.

@Ftjwinfs
In the older version, @Ondřej-Šutera is right, if you click the dropdown arrow to get the forecast panel to open it will zoom in to that location. Although - it might zoom in more with the new version? That could also be because the new version overall makes me feel more claustrophobic lol

The solution to this is to make sure the forecast panel is OPEN, zoom out to desired zoom level, move map under crosshairs to desired location - the forecast panel will update and not auto-zoom... On my android device it takes a second for it to load and there is feedback (vibration) when the panel updates.

Ftjwinfs

@Wheats

Thank you. I am well aware of what you write. From my point of view moving the map to target a new position is not a smart solution. Tapping (as before) is much more straight-forward.

Also: Ondrej knows about auto-zoom in the current version. The discussion at the moment is about the question, if this has been there before for old versions, which I can not reproduce.

The points I am trying to advertise in this thread are:

Use straight-forward location selection: Tap on map
Keep map region fixed when studying weather for different locations
Do not auto-zoom in any situation

Lets please stick to these points.

idefix37

@Ftjwinfs
@Ondřej-Šutera
@Wheats

Or, would an additional "pinned picker" button (on /off) to scroll the map and zoom in or out without losing the position of the picker (shown by a white dot) wouldn't be the fastest solution?

Ftjwinfs

@idefix37

What you suggest is easily realized by the existing feature "Move map to change the forecast location" ON/OFF.

My point is something different: Keep the exact map region when selecting different locations.
That's how it was handled before in the previous versions.

Solution:

Select new location by tapping somewhere on the map.
Do not change map view

Wheats

@Ftjwinfs

the app has always acted the same way - ie move the map under the crosshair (or dot in the old version). This allows precision, instead of trying to get my fat fingers to select a certain spot hah.
again, this is how it's always been on the app (as far back as I can remember)
I agree regarding auto-zoom

Sounds like you want the app to be exactly the same as the website - which it seemed much closer to in versions prior to v39.

Ftjwinfs

@Wheats

Sorry, but I can not follow you. I have an Android device here with Windy 38.1.5. The location selection is by tapping on the map, map does not change during this (as I have written several times). The location is not selected by moving the map under a cross-hair or dot.

You write "this is how it's always been on the app". Well, I have not seen this in my more than five years of using the app. For me, the cross-hair selection only appeared in v39.

Also: Please do not try to convince me that I'm better off with the new selection process due to fat fingers. If the new approach for location selection would really be better, I would not be so stubborn to advertise the old solution that worked perfectly well for me for years.

Wheats

@Ftjwinfs Well now I'm confused....you're saying, on the app, you can just click a spot (say at the bottom of the screen) and the dot will appear exactly where you clicked?

It was a dot, now it's a crosshair - the way you need to move the map under the dot (or crosshair) has been this way for as long as I can remember....at least on my android app.

I'm not trying to convince you of anything - just trying to envision a reason why they chose to move the map under the dot (or crosshair) as opposed to pressing on the map while using a small screen.

Like I said, sounds like you want the app to be exactly the same as the website - because the website does everything you have outlined here.

Wheats

@Ondřej-Šutera
My thoughts:

auto-zoom into a location is distracting and makes users lose focus on what they are analyzing - please allows users to disable auto-zoom feature
User can choose whether they want to move the map under the crosshairs to a location, or, they can select a point on the map they are interested in and gain forecast information.
- if "Move the map to change the forecast location" is NOT selected....can there be a feature where a user can just press on a location on the map to change the forecast location?

Ftjwinfs

@Wheats

To clarify:

Old app: Tap on screen to select location. It was not necessary to move the map under the dot, simply tapping was enough.

New app: Move map under cross-hair to select location. Simply tapping not possible. Its not simply a new icon, the whole selection process is different.

Very surprising, that for you also for old versions it was necessary to move the map under the dot/cross-hair. @Ondřej-Šutera, can you cornfirm this?

idefix37

@Ftjwinfs said in Feature request: Small modification of location selection process:

What you suggest is easily realized by the existing feature "Move map to change the forecast location" ON/OFF.

Yes but my suggestion is much more faster and very easy to be found by the user.
In addition the whole map would be visible, not hidden by the point forecast table.

Select new location by tapping somewhere on the map.

It seems that tapping somewhere on the map to select a location as it was used on iPad but not on iOS phone app (on Android I don’t know) seems no longer be considered by developers. Otherwise they would use it for the first location selection instead of scrolling the map. .

Ftjwinfs

@idefix37 thank you for your comments!

To refocus: What I like to discuss/support in this thread is

Use straight-forward location selection: Tap on map
Keep map region fixed when studying weather for different locations
Do not auto-zoom in any situation

Providing the above as user-selectable options would also be perfect.

idefix37

@Ftjwinfs
I fully agree with you.

Photoflash

@Ftjwinfs This is a good explanation of what’s not been changed for the better in the new UI.
I heartily agree, and wish there was an option to show text only for changing layers.
I don’t need or want satellite imagery taking up unnecessary screen real estate.