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UX Alpaca
Thoughts and explorations on all things design

Dive planner app review part 1

All (hopefully) divers are familiar with the so-called 'dive tables’. It is a tool with which you can estimate how long one can stay under water and at which depth, as well as how long the resting interval on the ground should be to make the next dive safely.

A dive table

Using the table for calculations is relatively easy. However for a casual diver, without regular practice of using them it is easy to forget the how tos. But no worry, there’s an app for that ☺

How to plan a dive with a Dive table

  1. Select your depth and time under water
  2. Check your pressure group to see if you are not extending the safe limits
  3. If there is another dive, find the time you spend on the ground (surface interval) within your pressure group and find the depth/time combination on the flip side of the table
  4. Check if you are not extending the safe limits
  5. Repeat this process if more dives are planned in one day

I would like to review several free apps with the highest ratings, and if necessary propose solutions.

The V-planner app

How it works

When app is loaded, you are greeted with an empty screen without any prompts.

To add a dive you press a ‘+’ at the bottom, and specify details of your dive

You can afterwards check the 'sanity’ of your plan by tapping 'calculate’

Further, you can add more dives and check the calculations

And to remove entries you should click on the cross in one of the corresponding columns, select what you want to delete and confirm

Remarks

As a reflection on what can be learnt from V-planner app, here are some remarks. Here I will mention only the bigger topics, not getting into specific small improvements. This approach helps to focus on learning from examples, rather than bashing other people’s work.

Empty states

Generally, when interface’s content cannot (yet) be shown, it is a good practice to include an element which will guide user through it:

  • If there is an error, explain it;
  • If something can be not obvious, explain it;
  • If an action can be done by the user to get things going, suggest it.

This app would benefit from emphasizing that you have to add a dive first to be able to specify its details.

Present information as self-explanatory as you can

but not more than that (I am referring to the famous quote which often is attributed to Einstein).

The purpose which this app is designed for, are the resulting calculations, learning if the time / depth you planned is safe to do. The user can access that information by clicking on 'calculate’. A table of numbers is displayed on the screen.

Even though I know which information more or less should be there, it is not crystal clear for me if what I’m looking at actually is the calculation I think it is.

It could be beneficial to add more labels and explanation to the calculation result, so that both novice and experienced divers could understand the result, and there is no double reading. That’s not something you want from an app when planning something concerning your health.

Allow the user to easily play with variables

One other thing that is handy fir such a tool is the option to edit one of the parameters within a group of dives and see how it influences the allowances of the next ones. For example, staying less under water during the first dive can allow a decreased amount of time on the surface.

Currently, editing a parameter is a number of taps away:

  1. Tap on the X icon
  2. Select a dive
  3. Select if you want to edit it or delete it
  4. Edit it
  5. Save
  6. Calculate

This process could be much faster and more intuitive if there was an inline option next to every dive to edit or delete it.

Also, getting to see resulting calculation change on the go while the variables are edited can give a more direct visualization of the result.