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.