I used the Poudre Basin Information website on my phone while I was out of the office. The application is behaving much better than before and that is great because it helps with business development. Below are some observations.
Determine whether mobile device. Hopefully the code is able to call some global application code such as app.isMobile(). I did a bit of research and found the following: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3514784/what-is-the-best-way-to-detect-a-mobile-device. My main concern is that if we are only using application window size (not screen size?), does that accurately handle behavior? One of the main issues is whether the device has a mouse-like pointing device that allows for hover popups. I don't think we want to enable a different URL for mobile devices, but maybe we could add a link on the landing page with something like "Click here if mobile device is not automatically detected." and then accept a parameter ?mobile=true or similar, which would cause the application to reload and run for mobile. This could also be used to test the software on a desktop computer as if in mobile mode.
The hover popup note "Move over or click on a feature..." does not make sense on mobile because hover is not available. If hover is not available, it should say "Click on a feature...". I wish there were a way to enable hover on mobile but that is a challenge. Maybe the map navigation sidebar could show a mode when in mobile where a finger is either causing pan, or hover? Then people could toggle it and hover could work?
Click causes both info popups when only click popup should occur, as if hovering and clicking. Only the popup from the click should be shown, which is typically smaller.
Maybe if app thinks it is on mobile, show an icon in the left similar to the version icon and allow the user to override. Then it is not a mystery about what the software things is going on. This is similar to the link in item 1 above but the mode could be switched after the application starts.
I had a hard time with accuracy using my finger to select stations on the flood map. Might need a stylus to interest with detailed data? I guess people just need to zoom in to have better aim.
Maybe I need to update the website documentation to have a section on how to use on a mobile device. Please provide comments on this issue as to how the website behaves differently on a mobile device.
I used the Poudre Basin Information website on my phone while I was out of the office. The application is behaving much better than before and that is great because it helps with business development. Below are some observations.
app.isMobile(). I did a bit of research and found the following: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3514784/what-is-the-best-way-to-detect-a-mobile-device. My main concern is that if we are only using application window size (not screen size?), does that accurately handle behavior? One of the main issues is whether the device has a mouse-like pointing device that allows for hover popups. I don't think we want to enable a different URL for mobile devices, but maybe we could add a link on the landing page with something like "Click here if mobile device is not automatically detected." and then accept a parameter?mobile=trueor similar, which would cause the application to reload and run for mobile. This could also be used to test the software on a desktop computer as if in mobile mode.