From the Malverns | The Coffeehouse

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

If anyone has a little time I would appreciate some feedback on http://FromTheMalverns.com.

It is still a work in progress but it would be good to get some constructive criticism - especially with regard to design and usability.

(Also, if anyone fancies creating images for their local area please give me a shout.)

Harlequin
http://twitter.com/TrueHarlequin

Why not just make it 100%/100% in height and width, fill up the browser. So much space is wasted with whitespace and that "fullscreen" text.

spivonious

That's a neat idea! No complaints on the interface although I'd label the sliders instead of relying on tooltips. Also, the popups for the litte information spots shouldn't go away until I move the cursor away from them. Currently they're timing out before I can read the longer ones.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to Harlequin

#Oct 5th @ 7:02 AM

Thanks Harlequin - my (possibly flawed?) thinking was that if it looked a little crappy in the default view then people might be more enclined to click on the 'full screen' view - which is what it really needs.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to spivonious

#Oct 5th @ 7:10 AM

Thanks Spivonius -

"I'd label the sliders instead of relying on tooltips"

Yep, might have to redesign things a little to do this but I'll give it some more thought.

the popups for the litte information spots shouldn't go away until I move the cursor away from them. Currently they're timing out before I can read the longer ones.

Yep, (but I havn't found an easy way of increasing the default tooltip timeout which is what is behind this),

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

In reply to Ian2

#Oct 5th @ 7:11 AM

I don't like having things full screen, so making it better suited to windowed mode would definitely be a plus for me. Also, the labels for the checkboxes are very hard to read due to the second colour of the gradient being nearly identical to the background.

EDIT: And why are all the image hotspots at the top of the map? If I hadn't zoomed out completely I wouldn't ever have noticed them.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to Sven Groot

#Oct 5th @ 7:41 AM

Thanks for taking the trouble to feedback:

"I don't like having things full screen, so making it better suited to windowed mode would definitely be a plus for me."

I agree that this would be a plus - I'll add it to my todo list and see what I can come up with

"Also, the labels for the checkboxes are very hard to read due to the second colour of the gradient being nearly identical to the background."

Damn, yes, I meant to change these!

EDIT: And why are all the image hotspots at the top of the map? If I hadn't zoomed out completely I wouldn't ever have noticed them.

Hmmm, it should default to an area around the Malvern Hills where the majority of the hotspots are - I take it that this didn't work for you? Sounds like a bug?

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

In reply to Ian2

#Oct 5th @ 7:51 AM

It defaulted to that area, but the hotspots were all located exactly on the top edge of the map.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to Sven Groot

#Oct 5th @ 8:02 AM

"It defaulted to that area, but the hotspots were all located exactly on the top edge of the map."

That doesn't sound right, there should be a fairly even dispursement (all around 30 miles from my house!).

I couldn't trouble you for a screen shot I suppose? (FromTheMalverns(AT)WebServicesUK.com)

figuerres
???

interesting, i will have to wait till tonight to really go over it.

quickly though: several buttons are "toggle" but visualy they do not show what state they are in.

possibly modify the text and the visual to give them an "ON" and an "OFF" state.

like "lables on" | "lables off" for example.

and the web page and silverlight need to blend better the text at top should go away.... I have a small sl app that sizes to the browser client area and that IMHO works fine, if you want i can snip the needed code for you.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to figuerres

#Oct 5th @ 9:30 AM

Thanks for this,

Several buttons are "toggle" but visualy they do not show what state they are in.

possibly modify the text and the visual to give them an "ON" and an "OFF" state.

like "lables on" | "lables off" for example.

I think I was vaguely aware that this wasn't quote right, I've got a template for these buttons so I'll see what I can do with it.

and the web page and silverlight need to blend better the text at top should go away.... I have a small sl app that sizes to the browser client area and that IMHO works fine, if you want i can snip the needed code for you.

Yes please!

spivonious

In reply to Ian2

#Oct 5th @ 10:09 AM

For those buttons you could use ToggleButtons instead of regular Buttons. That way they'll still look like buttons but will have a "checked" state.

You could also try using Popups (are these supported in Silverlight? they're in WPF) instead of tooltips for the info spots.

I'd love to give you some pictures to add from my area, but I have no good source for old photos.

Also, I'd change the default view to Fade. I wasn't sure what your app did until I moused over the photo.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to spivonious

#Oct 5th @ 10:34 AM

For those buttons you could use ToggleButtons instead of regular Buttons. That way they'll still look like buttons but will have a "checked" state.

In the short term I've just bolded the text in the button when clicked - I'll live with that a while and see how it goes.

You could also try using Popups (are these supported in Silverlight? they're in WPF) instead of tooltips for the info spots.

They are supported but its a little more heavyweight than I would have liked.

I'd love to give you some pictures to add from my area, but I have no good source for old photos.

Thanks, I have got loads more to be going on with so no worries!

Also, I'd change the default view to Fade. I wasn't sure what your app did until I moused over the photo.

Good point - I'll give that a go.

Thanks for your help!

9:00pm - Just poped up a slightly revised version that picks up on some of the feedback so far. (On the last point I might try animating the searchlight but then have the mouse pick up as soon as you mouse over the screen?)

Thanks guys.

figuerres
???

In reply to Ian2

#Oct 5th @ 10:09 AM

just a simple thing really...

now the page i use has no html other than the stuff that puts the sl in the page.

then my xaml root looks kinda like this:

<UserControl

... name spaces and stuff...

SizeChanged="UserControl_SizeChanged" >

.... rest of the page ....

</>

then in the .cs i have:

private void UserControl_SizeChanged(object sender, SizeChangedEventArgs e) {
         try {
            LayoutRoot.Width = e.NewSize.Width;
            LayoutRoot.Height = e.NewSize.Height;
            DetailsPnl.Width = e.NewSize.Width - 10;
            ScrollV.Height = e.NewSize.Height - 72;
         } catch (Exception ex) {
            string foo = ex.StackTrace;
         }
      }

the try/catch is for invalid sizes like whenn the user tries to make the page really small.

the two child controls i had to adjust a bit to keep them in the visible area.

my .aspx has a tyiny bit of css like this:

...

so far this works in ie 7/8 and safari w/o any issues.

not super tested ... not checked in ie6 or fire fox etc...

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to figuerres

#Oct 6th @ 4:47 AM

That looks good,

Thanks,

Ian

figuerres
???

In reply to Ian2

#Oct 6th @ 4:56 AM

so far i am really loving SIlverlight V3 still learning a LOT about how to get things to work but it's a lot more fun for me than flash or ajax so far...

with flash i always feel like i am working with one hand tied and one eye covered.....

with ajax it's will the client always do what i wanted w/o strange issues like failed partial postbacks etc....

and all the issues with shoving so much script and tags down the line.

and imho folks have pushed html and http just about as far as they will go.

with SL I feel like it's a new part of a familiar place.... i still use the same basic tools and language but now I have a new surface to paint on ....

cro

Don't know if it is because my setting are french canadian, but your app didn't work on my computer.

Harlequin
http://twitter.com/TrueHarlequin

If you want UI ideas, head to and bookmark http://www.scrnshots.com. Full of screenshots or stuff around the web. Good site to go to if you want ideas, even on simply things like buttons or checkboxes...if you find yourself stuck.

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

In reply to cro

#Oct 6th @ 8:53 AM

Sorry to hear that. What were the symptoms? I see no reason why it shouldn't work for you but perhaps there is something I can do?

cro

In reply to Ian2

#Oct 6th @ 2:31 PM

Here's the error message from IE :

Détails de l’erreur de la page Web

Agent utilisateur : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; Tablet PC 2.0; Zune 4.0)
Horodateur : Tue, 6 Oct 2009 22:09:04 UTC

Message : Unhandled Error in Silverlight Application [Format_InvalidString]
Arguments :
Les chaînes de ressource de débogage ne sont pas disponibles. Souvent la clé et les arguments fournissent suffisamment d'informations pour diagnostiquer le problème. Consultez http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=106663&Version=3.0.40818.0&File=mscorlib.dll&Key=Format_InvalidString   à System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)
   à System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
   à System.Double.Parse(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)
   à System.Double.Parse(String s)
   à SilverWipe.MainPage.getData(String SelectedTown, Boolean Initialise)
   à SilverWipe.MainPage..ctor(String Town)
   à SilverWipe.App.Application_Startup(Object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
   à System.Windows.CoreInvokeHandler.InvokeEventHandler(Int32 typeIndex, Delegate handlerDelegate, Object sender, Object args)
   à MS.Internal.JoltHelper.FireEvent(IntPtr unmanagedObj, IntPtr unmanagedObjArgs, Int32 argsTypeIndex, String eventName)
Ligne : 1
Caractère : 1
Code : 0
URI : http://msbluelight-0.agappdom.net/e1/d/13970/23307583/63390556800/0.nebjHT9RqnV7AWjizui5_b01IBg/zziframehtml2zz.html

Are you using string with dot that you convert to double ? You should use InvariantCulture for that.

This fail on my system:

namespace ConsoleApplication1 
{ 
   class Program 
   { 
      static void Main(string[] args) 
      { 

         string s = "123.456";
         double n = double.Parse(s); 
      } 
   } 
}

Use this:

namespace ConsoleApplication1 
{ 
   class Program 
   { 
      static void Main(string[] args) 
      { 
         string s = "123.456"; 
         double n = double.Parse(s, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture); 
      } 
   } 
}