Set starting SOC for a trip.

[arcy]

I live in Durham, NC, US -- drive a LR AWD Model 3 Tesla, which I've taken to Nashville and back (about 8-9 hours one way). 

 I'm trying to set a  starting charge for a trip. It assumes I will start with 90%, and there is a "Settings" cog I can press to bring up a dialog box.

 

So I can set the percentage to 50, but the dialog box won't let me close it there; when I try, it highlights the "kW" box in red, as though that's the error. I do not have a way to charge at that address, I'm just guessing that it will be 50 and I'm certain that's closer than 90. I tried putting a number into kW, and that let me close the box, but did not change the starting SOC. 

I know I can change the starting percentage in my profile settings, but I wanted to do it for just this trip. Is that possible? How do I do that?

[rbbost]

I have the exact same issue.  I sent feedback to them just now - so many issues with this new interface; bad UI design, non-intuitive.  What the heck is "charge to _ kW" setting and why does it require knowing what it is?  Why a clickable Done button when it won't accept the inputs (missing kW)?  Why does iOS keyboard popup hide the departure date/time Done button?  Why are settings not saved, and on your account settings there is no Save button at all - did they get saved?  Always, as soon as I type something?  Why a video/audio Play button to plan a route (I'd expect video help playback)? 

[Jason-ABRP]

On 4/10/2020 at 1:11 PM, arcy said:

I live in Durham, NC, US -- drive a LR AWD Model 3 Tesla, which I've taken to Nashville and back (about 8-9 hours one way). 

 I'm trying to set a  starting charge for a trip. It assumes I will start with 90%, and there is a "Settings" cog I can press to bring up a dialog box.

Ah, I see.  Would it help you if we added "departure charge" to this popup to avoid the confusion on the very first waypoint?

On 4/10/2020 at 1:11 PM, arcy said:

So I can set the percentage to 50, but the dialog box won't let me close it there; when I try, it highlights the "kW" box in red, as though that's the error. I do not have a way to charge at that address, I'm just guessing that it will be 50 and I'm certain that's closer than 90. I tried putting a number into kW, and that let me close the box, but did not change the starting SOC. 

I know I can change the starting percentage in my profile settings, but I wanted to do it for just this trip. Is that possible? How do I do that?

A miscommunication on our part.  The title "Charge here" is assuming you'd like to plug in and charge at the waypoint.  This allows you to plan on using a friend's dryer outlet in their garage or something similar (Thus, it requires you to input a power in kW so we can calculate how long it'll take to charge).  What would be a better title to communicate that to you?

And I think your second paragraph highlights another area we could improve clarity.  Everything on what you call the "profile settings" except for the very bottom where it says "App Settings" is per-plan, and is saved with the plan.  How could we present that better for you?  We used to have the plan and app settings on different pages, but we consolidated them for simplicity (and to make it easier for new users to find the app settings).

6 hours ago, rbbost said:

I have the exact same issue.  I sent feedback to them just now - so many issues with this new interface; bad UI design, non-intuitive.  What the heck is "charge to _ kW" setting and why does it require knowing what it is?  Why a clickable Done button when it won't accept the inputs (missing kW)?  Why does iOS keyboard popup hide the departure date/time Done button?  Why are settings not saved, and on your account settings there is no Save button at all - did they get saved?  Always, as soon as I type something?  Why a video/audio Play button to plan a route (I'd expect video help playback)? 

"Charge here" is adding a charger stop manually to the route.  If you know you're going to be able to plug in at a hotel, friend's house, or campground, but we don't have the charger on the map, you can put in the charger particulars and we'll calculate it as part of the plan.

Settings are always saved whenever they're changed.  Although, in this case, I suspect you're talking about the settings not being saved if you close the waypoint settings with invalid inputs.  We don't want to save those settings, since if you then try to plan a route you'd get an error.

We are looking at changing the plan route button to something a little more intuitive, and we're happy for the feedback! Since we're so involved with the app, we can get very used to how things work and it's really good to get feedback from users new to the app.  

[arcy]

So, the starting point for a trip has the same settings popup dialog as a waypoint. But as far as the trip is concerned, we usually don't care how long it takes to charge before we start out. So I suggest that you make this popup different, just as you make the popup for the destination different. Eliminate fields on this new popup having to do with charging, and have a field for SOC at the start of the trip. The user could enter it, or maybe you could have an option to "use live data". 

One other minor detail -- there is a box underneath the SOC percentage box that I *now* understand can be used to hold a duration. When I first open that box, it is unlabelled, and there is no text in it at all. When I click on it, it gives me another dialog to enter a time period; if I don't select anything and then click "Done", the time entry dialog odisappears, and now the text field for a duration contains the faint text "0 min". If that text is meant as an indication what the field is for, as it could, then it would be more useful to have it show up when the settings popup is first displayed.

A suggestion for the icon of the "Play" button: how about a compass image, with the teardrop-TeslaCharger symbol in the middle? I assume you have some kind of rights to that, or don't need them, since you use it on the "A Better Routeplanner" logo.

Now, the settings -- only after you told me did I notice that there were "plan settings" and "App settings". I think there is room to say something like "applies to this plan" or "applies to this trip" right up at the top of the panel. I know "Plan settings" should imply that; if you don't get many questions about this, then perhaps it's enough the way it is, with just that title.

I think I was partially confused by the fact that so many of the settings values look like app (or "User") settings to me -- I think most people are ever going to get plans for one car, for instance, so the car doesn't need to change per plan. My reference consumption is something I would expect to carry over from one trip to the next. My preferences under "Battery and Chargers" are things I would expect to have defaults, and then be able to change per trip if I wanted to.

So I suggest one of two things: (1) have a place where I can click to "save settings for future plans", so that they become my personal defaults. The nice part about this is that you don't have to have a separate place for "default" or "user" settings, the user just sets them the in the current panel and then saves them when he feels like it, (2) have a separate place for settings that one wants to be default for future trips. I think it would be less work and easier to understand the first way.

And ONE more suggestion -- provide a damned HELP popup and button, maybe more than one so each one can apply to just one portion of the application. Writing the help is work, of course, but might save you enough emails to make it worthwhile.

Small disclaimer: I have not yet used the mobile phone version of this, I've only used it on a Windows PC.