search

iitc-project / ingress-intel-total-conversion

ingress.com/intel total conversion user script with some new features. Should allow easier extension of the intel map.
http://iitc.jonatkins.com/
ISC License
989 stars 552 forks source link

Saved layer state can cause user confusion with missing portals, etc #778

Open jonatkins opened 10 years ago

jonatkins commented 10 years ago

Some users aren't aware that IITC has multiple layers that can be turned on/off. If they then accidentally turn off one or more of the standard layers they wonder why some details are missing. Often it's just unclaimed or L1 portals, but there was a case of both the 'resistance' and 'enlightened' layers getting turned off, so no portals (except unclaimed), and no links/fields being shown.

Things could do with improvements in this area. Some suggestions:

  1. don't save layer state. we take out the code completely, and layers are always in their default state
  2. don't save layer state for the standard IITC layers, but still save state for plugins
  3. save layer state in sessionStorage, rather than localStorage - so it resets on a browser restart. (need to check exactly how browsers handle session vs local storage)
  4. reset layer state to default after IITC has been closed for a while (by regularly writing the current timestamp to localStorage, then checking on restart how long it's been).If it's been closed for a while, reset layers to defaults (maybe only 'standard' layers, or all layers). a 'while' here could be anything from 1 to 24 hours.
  5. add a warning message to the sidebar when IITC starts and some standard layers are turned off. clicking the warning would turn them all on and remove the message.
  6. don't save layer state in storage - instead save it in the fragment identifier (after the #) of the URL, and access/update this in the javascript.
  7. ...something else i've not thought of?

option 1`/2 would be annoying when refreshing the page to ensure freshest data, or during development

jonatkins commented 10 years ago

option 5 (warning message on sidebar), combined with a visual warning on the layer chooser (red exclamation mark, perhaps?)

PrinterElf commented 10 years ago

I like 5 - it's the simplest method of retaining the current functionality without messing with sessions, local storage, etc... and if it's intentional then the user can just carry on and ignore the prompt.

cathesaurus commented 10 years ago

I agree, 5...also, that feels consistent with the informational messages / how-tos that appear on first install, these days. The only difference, I guess, is that the user can choose when they don't want to see each of those, whereas I'd suggest we probably don't want them to opt out of setting this one. Not that I mind seeing the same question get asked repeatedly in the community...

jonatkins commented 10 years ago

First attempt at improvements in this area: image

36fe84b4ef3f842f8d2df60d921f8a41924279d5