Early Access Community — Update #3: Better Labelling, Awesome (Retina) Rendering and Smoother Navigation
We’re bringing in the new year with a new release and some crazy weather across the northern Alps. Avalanche danger hitting cat 5 in places! What better time to stay at home and test the third update to our new global map (if you’re not a FATMAP beta tester yet, you can apply here).
TL;DR — The whole experience of moving and discovery has taken a leap forward. Cleaner, clearer labels allows for quicker orientation, the mountains render faster (a fancy way of saying the how the mountains improve in detail) and the navigation has new animations that take you from one object to another. If you’ve heard enough, you can dive straight in here.
Countries, National Parks, Resorts, Peaks…
Labels are a staple of any map. When you open a map, you look for country labels, then you look for city labels and so on until you’ve narrowed down the rough area you want to explore. We’ve now introduced a whole data set that includes things like countries, national parks, peak names (our favourite) plus adding labels to our own content. Areas that have our expert content have icons and names for quicker discovery.
A Detailed View
The map always renders in high-resolution, but we’ve introduced map rendering in full retina glory. This means the detail is sharper and easier to discern (if you have a retina screen).
Better Performance and Navigation
Finally, and as with most releases, there are a bunch of behind the scenes work that goes into making your experience better. Usually, these aren’t obvious but add to the overall feel. The map navigation is more responsive — things like touch and tap to explore — and the maps are performing much better on all devices including older generations.
Things to ask yourself when testing…
When you’re exploring the map, keep these questions in mind.
- Are the labels useful? Do they appear at the right times/at the right zoom levels? What labels are missing?
- Are you finding the information you need? Especially terrain information you gain from the map itself?
- Is it easy to explore the map? What would improve the experience?
Of course, all feedback is welcome but hopefully these questions can give you some starting points.
Remember, do not share anything from the beta product as it’s still a closed environment. For any questions, insights or opinions, you can hit the ‘FEEDBACK’ tab on the right hand side of the screen or drop us an email by hitting reply.
See you out there,
Adam
You can get in touch with the Early Access Community at earlyaccess@fatmap.com
