Show stale information if available GPS signal is lost

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hardware: Nexus One

"One more bug:  after leaving it sitting on my desk for a while, I tried 
zooming out.  The app blanked the screen and said "Searching for GPS", taking 
away all my access to information.  I don't like that.  I'd rather it leave me 
where I was last located and let me click on airport info, while clearly 
telling me the GPS signal was lost, and how long ago."

From colohan@google.com

Original issue reported on code.google.com by bonnieri...@google.com on 3 Sep 2010 at 6:36

[GoogleCodeExporter]

One possible fix is to show a different airplane icon, or maybe an overlay on 
top of the airplane icon, when there's no new position information. Maybe 
overlay a question mark or X or something like that.

Also, rather than replacing the entire map with a blank screen and "Searching 
for GPS", do as Chris suggests and show the map of the last known position. 
Maybe replace the top panel with "Searching for GPS" or something along those 
lines.

Assigning for UX mock up

Original comment by ph...@google.com on 4 Sep 2010 at 11:47

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Another user request to show "last known location" instead of blank screen.

I don't like the idea of replacing the top panel because that information might 
be useful still but we need to make sure the user knows the information shown 
is out of date and we're trying to reestablish the lost signal. I like the idea 
of removing the airplane and either putting something else there or changing 
its appearance with a message somewhere that we're searching for GPS without 
disabling other features.

Original comment by bonnieri...@google.com on 7 Sep 2010 at 7:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Definitely approve of the idea of changing the airplane icon -- that's the 
perfect place to communicate state. I think freezing display movement at "last 
known good location" and keeping airport information available at whatever zoom 
level is good. This gets more challenging once multitouch/pan+zoom is possible 
on the map. I guess maybe the interaction doesn't ever change, but your 
aircraft icon becomes pinned and the UI clearly indicates it's offline.

I'll cook up an alternate icon treatment for use now.

Original comment by sh...@google.com on 7 Sep 2010 at 7:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

[deleted comment]

[GoogleCodeExporter]

For comments 2 & 3, does that mean the panning behavior is different when 
there's no recent GPS position?

Having the "good position" indication at the top panel (or some other fixed 
location that won't change when panning) is the least confusing to me. Related 
to this, when we add a simulator mode, we'll want to have an indication that 
the position shown is not real but simulated.

Maybe we could have a little GPS icon showing the quality (sample values: old, 
poor accuracy, good accuracy) and source (real or simulated GPS) of the GPS 
position.

Original comment by ph...@google.com on 8 Sep 2010 at 1:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think we should be careful not to combine too many issues into one.  I see 
the following concerns:
- show accuracy of the provided location (Maps does it with a circle)
- clearly indicate when in simulation mode

Panning is an orthogonal issue: no matter what the displayed map region is, if 
the provided location (i.e. the airplane icon) is visible, an indication of its 
accuracy is needed.

Finally, considering the importance of knowing whether we're in simulation mode 
or not, I would recommend clearly displaying "SIMULATION" somewhere on the 
screen when applicable.  Note that using the accuracy indicator for this 
purpose would prevent us from simulating different location accuracies.

Original comment by aristi...@google.com on 8 Sep 2010 at 2:23

[GoogleCodeExporter]

When I have no GPS coverage at all (while underneath an apparently very thick 
layer of storm clouds, for example) it would be nice to be presented an option 
to show the last-known information, however inaccurate. When we have pan, the 
user can approximate their current location in the screen. Maybe we could grey 
out the airplane icon as well as the distance-to and bearing information in the 
tapcard.

Original comment by bonnieri...@google.com on 24 Oct 2010 at 9:33