I couldn't find an email address to write this company directly and I get an error with the form on their site so I figured I would put my review here... If others do the same maybe the developers will have to take notice.
Yesterday while I was out and about I tried to use this application and found it very, very frustrating.
Excuse the length of this note but I wanted to give detail regarding my frustration.
I was trying to find directions to a specific PSCU (Public Service Credit union). The address was 6850 S Yosemite St, Englewood, CO 80112. I entered the search criteria as 6850 S Yosemite, Aurora CO. This is because I was driving and didn’t know the actual city (will touch on below) and sure didn’t know the zip code. The results seems to drop the numbers from the address so I had about 13 S Yosemite combinations but without the numbers I had no clue which was the one I wanted. i entered the numbers, why weren’t they in my results?
Any of them could have been right for all I know and I have lived here 40 years. I’d hate to see what this would do to someone new to the area or visiting. I would like to see it return every 6850 S Yosemite in the state of CO and let me choose the one I needed.
I also noticed the results were ALL in Aurora so I suspected none of them were correct though I didn’t know what city was correct. The results with addresses were in ranges ie… 2100 – 2199 S Yosemite, 2200 – 2243 S Yosemite etc… Some covered many blocks but not one was the address I typed in the criteria. I believe this is because this application seems to be very dependent on the city you enter.
This dependancy doesn’t work in a place like Denver or any major metropolitan area where there are tons of little cities within and around the big city. God is the only one who knows where all the dividing lines. So even if you do know the street address you may not have a clue what city it's in, only that it is in the Metro area. Needless to say I had to switch over to trusty Google Maps for directions. I also like how Google Maps just let you enter the address instead of trying to fill in fields… Now that is driving friendly (hint, hint)
So, now I’m heading back to the house and thought I would give this application another chance. I wanted to stop at a King Soopers to catch the deal on soda ($2 /12 pk). This I searched as a “point of interest” and put Kings Soopers as the search criteria. I tried to pick a category but I didn’t see store, shopping or groceries so I had no clue what to pick. Not sure who chose those catagory names but they have major vs. minor airport’s then lump all shopping into retail??? What’s up with that?
I get my results and was very disappointed to find the results showed only “2.1 mi – King Soopers”, 2.1 mi – King Sooper, 2.8 mi – King Sooper, 5.3 mi – King Sooper etc… in large fields. This was very unacceptable, without displaying the addresses I had no way of knowing which was the store I wanted to stop by as I was looking for one located on my way home. I just had about 20 or so King Soopers in a list with the distance from me and I had no way of knowing the direction or anything without downloading the trip data etc...
The first one I picked was in the opposite direction from where I was going so I needed another choice. I couldn’t figure out how to return to my search results so I could choose another find. Again, while driving, the best I could figure was to close the application, re-launch it then enter the search criteria and wait for it to search again. I think this application needs a tune up before you go to market…
Here are some other things I noticed…
The search engine/results are not good or consistent. Typing King Soopers a second time using the same search criteria (you really need auto complete) and in the same general area it told me the closest King Soopers was 38.5 miles away. In a city this large they are all over the place. Luckily I was familiar with the area and ran into a Kings Soopers that so happen to be on my way about 6 blocks from where I was…
When doing a search, if it does not find anything or if you have somehow made a mistake, the fields are all blank when you go back to enter the criteria again. This means you have to enter all the information again while driving and you are not given the opportunity to double check your entries to see what needs to be corrected. Also, generally if the information stayed populated the fix should be a quick and simple adjustment. You should make sure those fields stay populated.
Also, once you select a destination ie… pick a trip, it doesn’t seem to give you a way to change your mind and choose a new destination. When I click back and hit address it keeps going back to my same trip. I did notice you can add a stop to the trip but what if you want a new destination? The only way I found to solve this is to close the application and open it again.
Lastly, the menu where you select the state, I’d whether just type in the state since it is only two key strokes (same as using your menu) but if you must have a menu please make it a normal drop down. This one kind of sucks because you enter both letters out of habit (CO) so I end up at Ohio every time.
Again, not trying to be critical but wanted to give the developer good input for improvements opportunities I see with their product…