UI, star bubble with plus

[joshinils]

I know in SC the star has the number next to it with my contributions. In SCEE this number is missing, so why is the star there?

Why is the red bubble with the small white plus there when I have to-be-uploaded quests? Isn't this redundant?

I'd suggest allowing one to tap the star and opening the profile view. Or generally replacing the star with the profile icon, too.

I was just confused by the existence of the star as a UI element, and an apparent lack of functionality for it.

[mnalis]

Why is the red bubble with the small white plus there when I have to-be-uploaded quests? Isn't this redundant?

Note that "manual upload button" (with quest country) is not shown if you have "Upload answers automatically" set to "on" (which is the default, I think?). In such case, that + in red circle on Star icon is the only indicator whether you have answers to upload[^1], so there is no redundancy in that case...

Now, alternative way to implement that might've been to remove star icon, and always show manual upload icon (even in cases of autoupload), and then (depending on the mode) enable or disable the action handler on it... It would result in one less icon in some cases (and same number in others).

I don't know why it wasn't done that way, but my guess would be that doing it this way was easier and/or more maintainable in the long run (as that layout part had to be changed anyway to remove score, so why also modify other parts of layout?)

I'd suggest allowing one to tap the star and opening the profile view. Or generally replacing the star with the profile icon, too.

What advantage would it bring, though? Do you really visit profile that often that having an extra click to reach profile screen is such a huge burden? If the effort was to be expended to further change it (which might or might not be worthwhile, when one takes into account maintenance effort needed), I'd rather:

• that ⭐ star icon was completely removed (and manual upload button always shown, as detailed above), or
• that the ⭐ Star icon remains, but clicking on it does something useful which is used very often (for example, switch to the previously selected preset? or download data here?), or
• do not change anything (keep status quo) -- hey, it has "least effort" going for it at least 😃

[^1]: you may wonder "How could you have quests waiting to upload if you've set app to auto-upload them??" - but that happens more often then you'd think - e.g. coverage issues in the wilderness, having mobile data disabled for power saving or financial reasons, etc.

[goldfndr]

The star counter is a placeholder for transfer activity.

Long ago, I thought the star should be temporarily replaced by an appropriate icon to reflect the current activity during a transfer:

• Up arrow: when sending Overpass queries
• Upload: when sending quest responses/notes
• Cloud or magnifying glass: when Overpass is evaluating a query (or other wait)
• Download: when downloading OSM data

Overpass isn't used anymore, and transfers have greatly sped up and logging has been added.

[joshinils]

What advantage would it bring, though? Do you really visit profile that often that having an extra click to reach profile screen is such a huge burden?

Just a thought, what could ⭐ do instead of nothing.

I agree with goldfndr, a general status icon could be good, indeed.

You could also re-use the spot for any other UI element, but it's certainly not in the prime thumb zone.

[mnalis]

Up arrow: when sending Overpass queries Download: when downloading OSM data

Note that star icon nowadays does (also) have rotating circle animation when data transfer is taking place, so that one is kinda implemented. It does not however differentiate between upload and download (but your android might offer such arrows in your mobile data/wifi icon in status bar)

Cloud or magnifying glass: when Overpass is evaluating a query (or other wait)

(Note that SC(EE) is not using Overpass anymore...)

I'm not quite sure, but I think similar data processing of quest data (or at least most of it[^1]) is happening in separate background thread, so it is probably not of big interest to the user (as they can continue mapping in the app while it is happening). And it is quicker than it used to be...

I agree with goldfndr, a general status icon could be good, indeed.

Any idea what it could be showing? (that is not already being shown and is useful[^2] enough)

You could also re-use the spot for any other UI element, but it's certainly not in the prime thumb zone.

That is true, not in ideal location for clicks... I would also add that randomly changing UI items positions for no good reason would probably be quite disliked (muscle memory breakage and all that).

[^1]: those parts that do not (if there are any), are probably quite short lived, and covered by that rotating circle animation too [^2]: i.e. taking into account that there is implementation and maintenance effort for every new feature, and that implementing one thing takes finite resources away from other things that could be implemented. So it is not just a matter of "hey let's add anything here, just so it has something more to do" 😅

[mnalis]

I agree with goldfndr, a general status icon could be good, indeed.

As the ⭐ star icon already serves as upload/download indicator (see image above) in addition to being a "uploads pending" indicator for auto-upload modes (when manual upload button is not shown), and there were no further replies to a question what else it could/should be doing, I'll close this now...

Any idea what it could be showing? (that is not already being shown and is useful2 enough)

...but it can be reopened if such idea pops up; feel free to comment then.