Discussion: Practicing route choices

I'm currently working on a website for people to practice route choices. The idea is simply to give someone a specific period of time to make a route choice. You are then able to look at what the best route choices were (based on distance [I have used the 2D Courseplanning tool from WorldofO]).

I've currently focused on sprint because I am a sprinter and making fast route choice decisions is really important, but I plan to have other routes in the future.

I've been releasing 10 routes every week.

All routes are also archived under either sprint or WOC (specific maps for WOC 2015).

If you want to check it out go here.

I'm hoping to get some feedback on what can be improved. I'm aware that this isn't really optimised for mobile at the moment.

I've just used maps that I've found on the internet or WorldofO. I'm hoping that people won't be too upset with the fact that I'm only showing single routes and not the entire map. I've also given an email address if they want the map removed.

If you want routes to be featured just send me the map with the leg that you want used (I've tried to make them all 1400x700) to: michael@routechoice.co

I tried it for a few legs and I like it. However, you are asking for comments so here's what came to mind.

It would be nice if there were an option to just look at the map for more than 5 seconds without it disappearing. I like the time limit for making quick decisions but it would be nice to not have to keep clicking the play button in order to look in more detail at what you missed initially.

Also, a + button to magnify some of the legs would be handy. The picture of the leg takes the whole screen so when the leg is short, it's easy to see the detail because everything is big. For long legs though, the detail is pretty small and hard to see the little passages.

Is there any way to set the amount of time the map is visible?

Currently I set the time with a function, so it shouldn't be too difficult to have an input and then use that to determine the time. It would probably just revert back after each map which isn't ideal. I'll work on this soon and hopefully have it included in the near future. I had just initially thought that 5 seconds (or less) is probably a good amount of time to aim for, considering that you will be looking while running so cannot look down for too long.

The magnification is an issue that I know about. Some legs are way too long and it makes it difficult. I'm not sure how to solve this yet though.

Thanks for the feedback.

Some legs naturally take longer than others to choose the route. An out-there thought: link the amount of time you have to look at the map to the length or complexity of the route.

For complex legs 5 seconds is not enough but short ones it's enough if not overkill.

Some difficulty with operating the tool, the menu buttons eg next map aren't working for me (IE11). Am accessing via your link above, and the back button doesn't get me back here.

Nice idea - should be a great training tool, especially for sprint.

Comments:
* Not always clear which leg you're focussing on - for eg. I went to this one and was busily working out a route from 4-5. Is it worth highlighting the numbers for the two controls? (or greying out any numbers in the image?)

* Small bug - some of the buttons aren't resetting properly, eg. Reveal button doesn't turn off when you click the Reset button, Reveal/Reset buttons don't turn off when you click Next Map. (Chrome 42)

@Juffy For the buttons, maybe you can send me a link as an example. It might have been one particular one that doesn't work (sometimes in the copy/paste I lose a letter here or there).

The leg used is the one that it's orientated to. I can look into other options like blurring out the rest of the map.

@gruver I've had feedback before from people using IE that have problems. I'm developing for Chrome etc, as far as I know IE is no longer supported by Microsoft (and Microsoft is releasing a new web browser soon). Hopefully there will be better support then.

Now that I think about it, ignore that bug - I'm not thinking hard enough about what your UI is doing. Could I suggest not highlighting the icons when hovering on buttons that are disabled? The blue background doesn't obviously (to me, anyway) say "this button is disabled".

It's a great tool to practicing route choices and to make fast decisions, althouh the 5 seconds limit at a difficult map or a long leg not enough. It could be good option when you upload a map with a long or complex leg you set different time (10 or 15 sec)

If I get a route that I think is shorter than the two suggestions, does that mean I win?

@Juffy Now no longer changes on hover.

I've added the timer (recommended time, but it can also be set by the user) to all the current week (week 4) routes. Let me know what you think before I change all of the other ones...

@tRicky It just means that you get the privilege of submitting maps and routes in the future to me :P.

Nice Mike. Cool idea. The other Saffa's obviously don't hang out in the discussion area of AP :)
I'll play around with it more soon.

This sort of thing?

https://twitter.com/murraystraining/status/5260759...

As far as I can tell, IE11 is supported for Windows 7 and 8. To ignore IE is to abandon lots of people. (Having said that I appreciate your initiative, and you can of course do what you like:-))

Looks like Microsoft abandoned lots of people also. I stopped using it when it started being a pain.

@gruver I've just looked at it on IE11. I can't seem to get the same problems that you have. The menu buttons work for me. The previous map button doesn't work on the first route (because there is no previous route) and the next button doesn't work on the last route (because there is no next route). Maybe it is to do with that? I'll look into it some more.

@tRicky I just like using Chrome because of the developer options which makes it a lot easier to bug fix.

That's fine, IE is stupid. I use Firefox these days (at home) although IE worked on my work computer.

The following sequence happens to me in IE11:
Home
Choose Weekly, WOC or Sprint, get menu and explanation
Choose reveal map button, get map for 5s
Choose reveal routes, get routes
Choose reset the map, no action
Choose next map, no action
Choose random next map, no action
Choose previous map, OK there isn't a previous map:-)

Added zoom (thanks Cristina) and timer (recommended but can also be set by the user) to all maps. Also added keyboard shortcuts (in brackets next to instructions).

There may be some problems if your browser has cached the data, so if you aren't seeing things as they should be (or it isn't working) try and refresh the page again or empty your browser cache.

@gruver I'll have a look again.

New routes are up :-)

New routes on www.routechoice.co

New ones every Thursday :)

Good stuff Mike.