How about a special jersey for group ride leaders? I realize this might require a secret code to be shared only with official group ride leaders so as to not have more than one per ride, but that seems easy to do. Additionally, since it’s tough for people to find the ride leader in a large group, how about putting a floating indicator above his head? As far as I can recall, there was a floating indicator used in the flyer detection when it was first implemented, so that seems easy too. Perhaps some kind of shining star icon or something sufficiently rideleaderish.
You could also put a widget on the ride leader’s name in the list.
Something that really stands out would be useful, maybe have them glow like the NPC’s but 3 to 4 times brighter? Could be unlocked with promo code or specific tag in the riders name. Maybe make their avatar seem 25 / 50% larger than “normal” riders? Some means of fixing them in the rider list on the right would be handy!
Shouldn’t be too hard even if the new map in the bottom left wasn’t implemented. I like the simplicity of the indicator and the fact it is reused in the map / ride elevation profiles.
NOTE: I’ve tweaked Daren’s original screen shot to add the ride leader indicator to the elevation profiles, if you have a problem with that Daren I can revert it
No problem at all! I think it’ll really help the group rides (and races possibly) to have these UI enhancements added.
Another thing that would be useful might be to be able to make the ride leader indicator “sticky” in the riders list; so they always appear either at the top or bottom of the list so you know at a glance whether they’re in front of or behind you. Even if it’s just an arrow pointing up or down and their nameplate itself doesn’t actually appear. During yesterday’s WSR I definitely lost track of where I was in relation to John Mora who was leading the ride.
As I said on the other suggestion, selecting someone as a ride leader, sticky or “special” would have to be something each individual rider does I think, because there could be multiple groups on the road, each with different leaders and sweepers.
With races, and a huge group, is is impossible to tell if the lead is ahead or behind your, even if you are “right next” to them. A pointer on the map icon/profile wouldn’t be much help for a tight group. Here’s an example from the last RGR ride:
Neil is the lead, and I’m one rider ahead of him (in black), yet Neil doesn’t show up in my ‘nearby rider list’. Without the overhead view, I wouldn’t know whether to speed up or slow down. What I’d like to see is the ability to just ‘tag’ riders on my list, so they get some type of highlight and then /stay/ on my rider list, so I know whether they are ahead or behind. Here’s a mockup:
Here, I’ve tagged M.Desrosiers and D.Barnard as leads, so I can see that I’m near one, and the other is :25 sec back. (apologies in advance for changing times - this just for discussion)
