When approaching a fork in the course where one can make a decision to turn in one of two directions, both directions used to be displayed on the screen immediately, like this:
However, now only one direction is shown and you have to click that icon to see what other directions are available… hence 2 clicks instead of 1. I personally don’t feel this is an improvement and am not sure why the change was made. On several occasions, I’ve “missed a turn” because I wasn’t able to move my cursor (using my PC) to the turn arrow icon in time to expand it, show the choices, then click the one I wanted while I continued riding.
I have some additional feedback on this, specifically after riding New York.
As mentioned in the other thread, sometimes the time available to make a turn is very short. Let’s say I’ve moved the mouse pointer in order to give someone a Ride On. Not unlikely, nor unexpected.
But now something pops up. “KOM Arch” OK, well I don’t know what the other directions are, so I need to click the “expand” icon. But wait, first I have to visually locate my cursor on the screen, and move it accurately. Not trivial when I’m riding a bike and stretching to reach the mouse - and the screen is displaying a moving image.
By the time I’d clicked the icon to see “Horse Carriages” as the other option, I only had a second or two to make a decision and click the button.
At the very least if you’re wedded to this UI, please
add a keypress to expand the selection
make the time available to make a decision at least 10 seconds
Edit: Update regarding the turn signal duration: They are affected by the length of the intersection selection area and the connecting stitch roads. So not everyone is going to have the same duration. Great feedback on it though, we will definitely put it into consideration!
Update #2 You can press the Up arrow on your keyboard to expand the selection and Down arrow to collapse. And the the left and right arrows to choose the direction. This is on PC/Mac.
And some more feedback. There are three problems with the timer in the new system
The contrast between the timing ring and the surrounds is too low - it is a growing thin orange circle in a graphic that has a lot of orange.
The ring starts at 3 O’Clock. This is very unusual. Most deadline timers stop at 12 O’Clock (and in this case would start from there. In particular there is orange clutter at 3 O’clock which exacerbates problem 1.
As previously mentioned 2 clicks to pick a direction is flawed. Firstly for a game where the use of keyboard is occasional then anything that increases usage is not good. You also do not know what options are available until you’ve clicked, so you have removed information from the user interface. More than that you have removed it when the user is under time pressure to make a choice.
Definitely a regression from the old system (and I did hold off from commenting in case it was shock the new causing the dislike) and I really do think it is a signifcant backwards step in this aspect.
I’ve particularly mentioned this one too. The contrast isn’t high enough and it’s hard to see.
This exacerbates the problem with the amount of time the turn is available being so variable. I get that if it’s determined by distance then rider speed plays a part, but from a few seconds to over a minute makes no sense.
I’d like to chime in on this one too. The addition of text underneath the route icons was a massive improvement… it’s very easy to know where you’re headed now without having to have the entire course memorized beforehand. The two clicks can be frustrating at times. Everyone’s hardware setup is different, but when you’re physically strained on the bike, moving the cursor over to click on the turn signal in time can tough. A possible solution could be to make this is a toggle in settings: Expanded OR collapsed turn signal.
Has that been introduced since the change happened? Because I tried that (as well as Enter) when it first appeared. Up-arrow did nothing, down-arrow made a U-turn IIRC.
I agree with this completely! The elimination of the direction arrows is definitely a step backwards… this is equivalent to driving down the freeway and not having exit signs at an offramp!
Only showing the direction arrow for the preselected route is useless. If you are only going to show one arrow it should be for the OPTIONAL route - not the route you will continue to ride if you take no action.
Also by eliminating the turn signals on the back of the bike Zwift does not show you what the rider in front of you has selected - so if you just happen to be riding with a group of riders at a nice pace and want to continue to follow them - they may now make an unanticipated turn and you have to do a U-Turn to continue riding with them.
