Problem
Currently, Drone Tasking Manager has lot lots of options for creating different kinds of projects, from small areas to city-wide imagery capturing. This is amazing because it enables lots of use cases. At the same time, creating a good UI/UX when offering too much features can be challenging. There's a need of a simpler user experience, increasing its accessibility but without limiting the capacity for intermediate or advanced users.
Proposed solution
We have been testing the approach of creating a "lite" experience in tools like ChatMap and fAIr, where users can use the tools in its basic form and then continue with a more advanced journey.
The proposal here is to follow the same approach, creating a Lite version for Drone Tasking Manager, where people can easily create flight plans and go to the field for capturing imagery. For this basic usage, there are features that are not necessary and can be added or offered later, the basic features would be:
- Select a location where to map
- Select coverage area using a boundary box, this would be limited up to certain size
- Select flight altitude, options would be limited
- Select dimension of square (task size). This would depend on the controller and the conditions that can affect battery duration.
- Download one or more flight plans for specific drone models, in order to fly the drone
- Save the state (temporarily) in the browser
On a next step, we could focus on adding two important but more complex features to the Lite version, in order to make the full workflow seamlessly:
- Copy the flight plan to the drone
- Upload imagery to be processed
The Lite version would be a different workflow for now, but it can serve as an inspiration or as the base for an improved user experience that can be applied to the full workflow, following the Progressive Disclosure design technique.
Demo
We've already developed a demo for the Lite version, which is in the process of being tested and improved:
https://dev.drone.hotosm.org/try-drone
Problem
Currently, Drone Tasking Manager has lot lots of options for creating different kinds of projects, from small areas to city-wide imagery capturing. This is amazing because it enables lots of use cases. At the same time, creating a good UI/UX when offering too much features can be challenging. There's a need of a simpler user experience, increasing its accessibility but without limiting the capacity for intermediate or advanced users.
Proposed solution
We have been testing the approach of creating a "lite" experience in tools like ChatMap and fAIr, where users can use the tools in its basic form and then continue with a more advanced journey.
The proposal here is to follow the same approach, creating a Lite version for Drone Tasking Manager, where people can easily create flight plans and go to the field for capturing imagery. For this basic usage, there are features that are not necessary and can be added or offered later, the basic features would be:
On a next step, we could focus on adding two important but more complex features to the Lite version, in order to make the full workflow seamlessly:
The Lite version would be a different workflow for now, but it can serve as an inspiration or as the base for an improved user experience that can be applied to the full workflow, following the Progressive Disclosure design technique.
Demo
We've already developed a demo for the Lite version, which is in the process of being tested and improved:
https://dev.drone.hotosm.org/try-drone