bmthom.gis

You know you can voice activate strava ki you have an android. Just say start a bike ride and the recording starts automatically. I'm sure I phones can do it too if you ask siri nicely

CliffordK

I also found the demise of the start arrow, and using a circle to both start and stop Strava as annoying.

As of a couple of days ago, most of the screens (Android) have labeled buttons "Start", "Resume" "Finish". Hopefully they've also translated those into other languages.

I think it is a HUGE improvement over using a circle to start, and a circle to stop

Oh, I was also able to start and stop my phone, and got a message "not moving yet, Discard?" Great addition.

Machka 

I quite like the new changes. It does say the word "Start" now ... that kind of gives away what it is for.

TimothyH

Everyone in IT eventually blames every problem on the storage array.


-Tim-

tyrion

Q: How many programmers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: None. That's a hardware problem.

tyrion

I'm a programmer with specialization in usability and UI design, and yes, the Strava app has some usability issues. Most software does have severe shortcomings in this area (even that of the revered Apple - iTunes still sucks, doesn't it?) but I've come to accept this. It is simply the world we live in, nicely polished software doesn't have a good return on investment. For the most part, there's not a good business case for making software/services that make people satisfied and content.

I'm not saying it's always going to be that way but that's the way it is now.

downtube42

HR gave the software dev leader a stack of foreign national electrical engineer resumes for his UI designer opening. Upper management approved a non-competitive salary, and threatens to offshore the remaining dev team if salaries rise any more. The COO slipped in the resume of his neighbor's son, who really is a good kid but just made a few bad choices. "Find a place for him" says the note. The lone veteran code jockey, who's trained a half-dozen new-hires intended to replace his salary just to see them chase money elsewhere, is well past giving a damn about the company or its products.*

So, yeah, you get a poor user experience. If you want a good user experience, find a new company that hasn't gone to hell yet.

*This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real company, existing or bankrupt, is coincidental due to the universal truth that all human institutions are doomed to devolve into madness.

f4rrest

Polish away, if you have unlimited time and resources.

tyrion

Ha, it's not that bad. Not even close. It's actually very impressive in many ways, but it's just not fine tuned enough to avoid a fair amount of irritation. But I think they are winning their market, so they will keep going.

spinnaker

First world problems. How can you go on? It must be horrible!

tyrion

I don't have the resources. I don't even have the inclination, if I did have the resources.

Rowan

Do you know that Microsoft actually had products in its Office suite that were sweet to use. But then some moron decided that it required change and more complexity, and elimination or rearrangement of great functions.

Same thing with Windows.

Your excuses as a programmer about "nicely polished" reflect the attitudes that exist these days... slapdash and careless in design and execution. Garmin is, in my view, as bad as them all. The reason? Change. Because change creates more dollars. It's the Microsoft and Apple model applied everywhere. Even Shimano has got in on the act with its own cycling hardware.

It's when amateurs (and I don't use that description lightly) are put in charge of the change projects that the problems arise. They forget that the vast majority of people who use their products don't have whizzbang processors and instant internet with terrabytes of download at their disposal to cope with the huge background data requirements to run their package.

When these wankers understand that most people use about 20% of their software and just want something that is efficient and reliable, and couldn't care less how it operates, then we might get better interfaces. At least Strava might have been listening.

downtube42

Winning the market leads to protecting market share, which leaves cost cutting as the only means of increasing profitability. The few companies that don't follow this pattern are the exception.

Trevtassie

OK, who revived the zombie post?

tyrion

I didn't mean to provide any excuses. It exists, it's a fact of life, there are forces that caused it to have the characteristics that it has - it is what it is, good points, bad points, etc.

tyrion

This I think is because of an arms race. Featuritis. More features sell. "Look at this checklist, we check all the boxes."

tyrion

Not necessarily. Investing in getting a higher conversion rate into paying customers could have a good payoff. And they're building up a big knowledge base that might be monetized.

Rowan

Doesn't matter because (a) it coincides with Stravas latest changes and (b) I am having fun poking the programmers

tyrion, you've taken it in good stride.

Rowan

By the way, Trev, in which part of the world are you at the moment?

bobwysiwyg

Inclined to agree with this. I picked up on the change with no lost rides/data.

rydabent

This thread is so true. I was not able to log my miles manually until some time in June for the NBC. Finally after dinking around on that ignorant site, we finally found out that you had to go in thru Strava to manually load your miles. Hundred or probably thousand may never have found out how to do that.

Im sure thousands hope the site is SIMPLIFIED for easy entry of manual miles for 2018

bruce19

My favorite is when I finish my ride and my Garmin Edge 200 gives me data on elevation. Then it is uploaded to Garmin Connect which changes the elevation number. Then it is sent to Strava which changes that number. So, after every ride I have three different Elevation numbers.

Sy Reene

Yes, I find myself most pleased with an effort if I use the RWGPS metrics, rather than what I see in garmin or strava. It is surprising, since all 3 apps are theoretically supposed to use what my garmin gps recorded..

bruce19

I actually spoke to a Garmin rep about this. I was told that when the data is uploaded from my Edge to Garmin Connect a formula is used to re-interpret the data. Then when it is sent to Strava there is a different formula that Strava uses to re-figure the data. I just use whatever data make me look best.

pickettt

I sure miss the days when riding the bike was about riding the bike.