Additional Compass Features

[nezmi]

The Compass OSD item is a valuable instrument which has room to integrate a few additional useful informations, IMHO.

Let's first have a look at the general layout idea in this picture . The dark grey area represents the area actually covered by the compass OSD item, the black background is just this: background. You find the accustomed the bee-line distance to a set destination in bright green and the inner ring with the direction pointers.

I would like to add

1. an indication of map orientation, either

• bearing aligned (top points in direction of travel)
• north aligned (top points north)

2. a pointer indicating the position of the sun as an aid for navigation and map orientation

3. further in the corners of the rectangular box occupied by the compass item there is room for additional information -- I suggest to use it for

• information about the current position, indicating if it was manually set (e.g. selected on the map or via a bookmark) or a GPS provided, and its quality.
• information about the state of routing calculation: progress, success, or failure ...
• (additional ideas welcome)

See also ​https://forum.navit-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=512

This picture illustrates a very simple design:

• The upper blue design represents a bearing aligned map, the lower white design a north aligned map.
• The green arrow gives the bee-line to the destination (if one is set), the white red-headed arrow points north, the blue arrow indicates the bearing, and the golden one indication the sun direction. The length of the arrows is staggered, so that overlapping arrows are still readable.
• The upper right shows that the current position is GPS derived with 5 of 9 visible satellites contributing a usable signal.
• In the upper left we see, that route computation is still running and 42% of the distance are covered by a route.

A little bit more elaborated is the design in the next picture:

• map alignement is indicated by elaborate center ornaments
• the pointers remain the same
• the current position was given manually
• the routing status signals successful computation of a route

This design sports:

• much simpler center ornaments
• the sun indicator is a golden disk indicating the altitude of the sun over the horizon with the outer ring representing the horizon and the center represent zenith (as in a sky map).
• the routing status signals a failed routing computation

Quite fancy is the next design :

• map alignment is shown by
  • a small ornament on the top of the ring
  • two different compass rose designs in the background allowing easy reading angles with approx. 10° precision
    • the travel direction (bearing) variant by purpose resembles a clock face. Aircraft pilots customarily use this to indicate directions relatively to the crafts bearing (see ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_position). As long as I can remember this was used in my family (no pilots since the invention of aircrafts) for car navigation and proved very useful: "leave the round-about on 2 o'clock" (not at to avoid misunderstandings and prolonged circling of the round-about ;-) This is much easier for driver and navigator than (mis)counting streets and also works very well for crossings with more than 4 streets forking in unusual angles.
    • a classical compass rose with 16 segments for the north aligned display
  • a very elaborate sun pointer, given the direction and altitude of a (fancy) sun (not visible at night), as well as a simulated illumination of a sphere. The latter should enable to estimate the sun direction when the moon is visible: If you see a 3/4 waxing moon for example, by watching the lunar terminator the display helps to imagine where the sun is below the horizon. (The alternative would be an explicit moon pointing arrow ...)

The final mockup is my personal favorite . The only difference to the previous is leaving out the outer ring. I find this quite elegant ...

All mockups above (+ some more) exist in a layered SVG design. The elements can be activated and combined in many variants. I will provide the developers with a consolidated polished set of SVG mockups after some period of discussion.

Your opinions and suggestions, please ...

[nezmi]

general layout plan

[nezmi]

simple design with routing and positional status

[nezmi]

elaborate center ornaments + route calculation succeeded + current position manually set

[nezmi]

simple center ornaments + failed route + GPS position

[nezmi]

fancy design with elaborate sun pointer and background compass roses

[nezmi]

fancy design, but less is more: leaving out the rings

[nezmi]

See ​http://trac.navit-project.org/ticket/1095#comment:8 for an elaborate example of why the clock-dial direction approach is advantageous, compared to turn strengthening or counting exits in round-abouts.