Interesting assumption. My mind goes to to a) Most people are mobile first and b) In this category of app, i imagine people want the route with them on their phone as they bike (as they're probably unfamiliar with the route, hence the need to plan it)
Cool idea, i'd love to try it but honestly i'd love it on my phone for the aforementioned reasons!
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Edit: Some follow up remarks (From Chrome on a Mac)
1. I found it a bit confusing when creating a route. I assumed it would let me do address completion. The UI seems to just be naming my route instead, i think if you're going to borrow visually from Google maps you should follow their patterns.
2. I was able to add my first point (my home), but adding a second point never worked.
3. The click mechanic is a bit odd. I expect clicking elsewhere when the menu is open (add point/close) that the menu would go away - rather than re-appear in my new click location.
4. The map centred me over Europe, i'm in Canada however. Some GeoIP lookup here could give a better experience.
5. Re:point 2, this seems to work when i selected random locations in Europe. I assume this is a data issue? So the real issue here (apart from the routing not working) is there's no feedback on the UI when the routing fails.
6. Refreshing my screen loses my route. Any chance you could save it to local storage or something? Would be amazing if i could create this route on my desktop and then send a link to my phone (once mobile is supported?)
I think the purpose is to export the route to GPX, so that you can use it on your phone when you're cycling.
Yeah, that's fair. I just don't have a habit of doing that so for me the GPX thing while good is a change in behaviour that limits me from adopting this app / exploring new trails. Also on further thought, i could see myself wanting to change the route mid-journey and that would be another issue with only having the GPX file.
Thanks for the feedback! I actually want to have it on mobile as well but will most likely choose React Native instead of trying to make the web app work on mobile (or maybe only with some very simple functionality). At first, my approach was to have a planner on desktop and route viewer/navigator on mobile, but you're right - there needs to be an option to update/modify your route while traveling.
Regarding state: it's only a matter of changing the blacklist array in redux persist config. Right now I have all global state blacklisted because I noticed a small bug with rendering the map layers when the state is persisted and I didn't have time to fix it but in the next version it will be persisted in localstorage.
>a) Most people are mobile first
I couldn't imagine trying to build a complex route on a tiny screen with a crappy phone UI. I am starting to feel like an old man yelling at clouds here. Why in the hell wouldn't you prefer to use a nice monitor with a mouse for a complex task like this?
> I couldn't imagine trying to build a complex route on a tiny screen with a crappy phone UI.
I nearly always plan routes on my phone. After all, it's the device I use for navigation attached to the stem of my bike.
> Why in the hell wouldn't you prefer to use a nice monitor with a mouse for a complex task like this?
The task isn't very complex with a decent UI. See for example the open-source app OSMAnd (Android & iPhone). Also, I am rarely at my desk, but I always have my phone on me. There can also be the issue of "Neat, I made a route on a big screen; now, how do I get it on my phone for real-time navigation?" depending on the app you are using.
Obviously not a representative sample, but I'd say ~25% of the people I know have a monitor and mouse, and the majority of that group only use it for work.
Thia isn't to say you're wrong. I much prefer my monitor and mouse for anything of reasonable complexity. But I increasingly find myself in the minority in that regard among people I know. Hell, I even find myself in the minority for using a laptop for tasks sometimes.
I mean, i made the remark and I feel the same as you. I think its just the reality of the world we live in. A lot of people are mobile first, watching a neighbours kid try use a mouse the other day really drilled it home for me. Put her on a phone? No issues. But on the laptop the kid was as lost as I was when my dad showed me a slide rule (i'm 38).