Several

[Cincinnati]

1. The resource list is too narrow.

2. There should be a download progress bar. Downloading seems to hang and not finish sometimes but one never knows when this is happening. A progress bar would just help all round.

3. Image viewer should zoom and content such as codices and maps should really be very high res given the rush towards 4k screens and high pixel density and memory is becoming a non-issue.

4. Full screen mode - it's nowhere near full screen. There's a large gap top and bottom. In full screen split window there's also a gap in the center that's too large. 

5. Please add option in for "Reference size" that allows one to select 'no reference' as well as 'no reference - chapters only'.

6. Add more fonts and show each actual font in the pull-down menu.

7. Bookmarks and/or tabs. Remove all obstacles to chasing a research whim. The hassle of returning to original location often means I won't pursue an idea because I don't want to lose my place. "Recently Opened" is a step but this process in a tab-rich world could be stronger.

8. Text highlighting.

 

and then from a separate post perhaps originally misplaced:

 

1. Swiping between resources (see note below). (Logos has a rudimentary form sort of...swipe right for resources which isn't as nice as what I suggest below.)

 

2. Easy size adjustment of dual pane dividing bar. This is executed intuitively in Olivetree - touch it drag it to be one line high or take about all the screen...it's up to the user. Everything should be up to the user when possible.

 

3. Attention to font and reading. Add more fonts and provide more fine tuning options of what is shown even allowing turning off verse numbers so that the text can look like a normal book. Both Olivetree and Logos both are so pleasant to read but Logos wins. You can turn off all extras and choose to only see the font...and they have a fantastic serif font. The fonts are very attractive and there are a host of quality font choices each of which is visible in that font when viewing available fonts. One of the benefits of interacting with the text digitally should be that one can tailor their experience on demand - no print run required. Please give an option to turn off even verse numbers. Get a graphic artist to make some Schuyler style chapter graphics (which can be turned on/off to taste). It would be great to be able to get a true reader's mode free of all distractions in the text. This a popular idea these days with multi-volume sets out in this format.

 

4. Bookmarks/tabs. Every major browser has tabs. Users should be encouraged to follow any bunny trail to their heart's content. As it is, I might use multiple devices just to keep from losing my place. Once I have 2 sources open, etc. I should be able to bookmark or tab that setup and get to it on demand, so that I can run off and check other resources knowing that with 1 to 2 presses max I'll be back where I started. 

 

Notes on swiping:

On the Android app in it's most advanced split-screen configuration assuming texts on top and reference tools on the bottom pane:

It would be enormously pleasant and efficient to be able to simply swipe right and left through appropriate resources in each pain. In the top pane one could swipe through all bibles while in the bottom pane one could swipe through lexicons and commentaries, etc. A swipe to the right would take one to the next text in his numbered list while a swipe left would take one to the previous text ie from 4 up to 5 or from 4 down to 3. Some users may choose to only select 3 texts for swiping and then needn't be bothered by remembering direction, etc. swiping either way would get them through all 3 texts rapidly.

My suggested implementation would be that there be a menu option added that allowed one to configure the resources available for swipe-through in texts as well as in resources. Perhaps 10 options could be given for each window and be listed in re-configurable order 1-10. It would be good if the user set this, the order he set was fixed and then one would become accustomed to that order and know that his current text was #5 NIV and a simple 2 swipe left would get him to #3 NA28. An advanced option could be added later allowing the saving of configurations whereby one list of 10 could be for Greek and the other Hebrew, etc. etc.

 

For full screen mode - especially for texts and especially when one wants to be in a clean 'Reader's Mode': I would love to have two swipe zones - top half of screen and bottom half of screen. These could be user configurable to allow reversing to taste. The top half of the screen set for swipe right and left to change chapters. Luke 1...swipe right and your immediately on Luke 2. The bottom half of the screen (for my settings) would be to swipe right and left through the exact same list of reference resources I selected in the user options for dual-pane swiping. If I had this option for normal study I would have my chosen text in reader's mode and swipe through chapters as i read using the top or bottom half and the moment I wanted to check my reference I would simply swipe the bottom half to check a study bible and a commentary. All tap/menu free. This allows the actual software to fade into the background and, as much as is possible, removes application barriers from the equation. I would use dual-pane much less as, especially on phones, screen real estate is at a premium. There could be several user-configurable options here such as top half and bottom half. Another good bottom-half option would be swiping in order through books of the bible so top half chapters, bottom half books. Perhaps even a 3rd swipe zone could be implemented to swipe through whatever class is in the primary single window...so if Bibles then swipe to another version then swipe right back. That would be effectively a parallel bible but implemented perfectly for a phone.

 

1. Swiping between resources (see note below). (Logos has a rudimentary form sort of...swipe right for resources which isn't as nice as what I suggest below.)

 

2. Easy size adjustment of dual pane dividing bar. This is executed intuitively in Olivetree - touch it drag it to be one line high or take about all the screen...it's up to the user. Everything should be up to the user when possible.

 

3. Attention to font and reading. Add more fonts and provide more fine tuning options of what is shown even allowing turning off verse numbers so that the text can look like a normal book. Both Olivetree and Logos both are so pleasant to read but Logos wins. You can turn off all extras and choose to only see the font...and they have a fantastic serif font. The fonts are very attractive and there are a host of quality font choices each of which is visible in that font when viewing available fonts. One of the benefits of interacting with the text digitally should be that one can tailor their experience on demand - no print run required. Please give an option to turn off even verse numbers. Get a graphic artist to make some Schuyler style chapter graphics (which can be turned on/off to taste). It would be great to be able to get a true reader's mode free of all distractions in the text. This a popular idea these days with multi-volume sets out in this format.

 

4. Bookmarks/tabs. Every major browser has tabs. Users should be encouraged to follow any bunny trail to their heart's content. As it is, I might use multiple devices just to keep from losing my place. Once I have 2 sources open, etc. I should be able to bookmark or tab that setup and get to it on demand, so that I can run off and check other resources knowing that with 1 to 2 presses max I'll be back where I started. 

 

Notes on swiping:

On the Android app in it's most advanced split-screen configuration assuming texts on top and reference tools on the bottom pane:

It would be enormously pleasant and efficient to be able to simply swipe right and left through appropriate resources in each pain. In the top pane one could swipe through all bibles while in the bottom pane one could swipe through lexicons and commentaries, etc. A swipe to the right would take one to the next text in his numbered list while a swipe left would take one to the previous text ie from 4 up to 5 or from 4 down to 3. Some users may choose to only select 3 texts for swiping and then needn't be bothered by remembering direction, etc. swiping either way would get them through all 3 texts rapidly.

My suggested implementation would be that there be a menu option added that allowed one to configure the resources available for swipe-through in texts as well as in resources. Perhaps 10 options could be given for each window and be listed in re-configurable order 1-10. It would be good if the user set this, the order he set was fixed and then one would become accustomed to that order and know that his current text was #5 NIV and a simple 2 swipe left would get him to #3 NA28. An advanced option could be added later allowing the saving of configurations whereby one list of 10 could be for Greek and the other Hebrew, etc. etc.

 

For full screen mode - especially for texts and especially when one wants to be in a clean 'Reader's Mode': I would love to have two swipe zones - top half of screen and bottom half of screen. These could be user configurable to allow reversing to taste. The top half of the screen set for swipe right and left to change chapters. Luke 1...swipe right and your immediately on Luke 2. The bottom half of the screen (for my settings) would be to swipe right and left through the exact same list of reference resources I selected in the user options for dual-pane swiping. If I had this option for normal study I would have my chosen text in reader's mode and swipe through chapters as i read using the top or bottom half and the moment I wanted to check my reference I would simply swipe the bottom half to check a study bible and a commentary. All tap/menu free. This allows the actual software to fade into the background and, as much as is possible, removes application barriers from the equation. I would use dual-pane much less as, especially on phones, screen real estate is at a premium. There could be several user-configurable options here such as top half and bottom half. Another good bottom-half option would be swiping in order through books of the bible so top half chapters, bottom half books. Perhaps even a 3rd swipe zone could be implemented to swipe through whatever class is in the primary single window...so if Bibles then swipe to another version then swipe right back. That would be effectively a parallel bible but implemented perfectly for a phone.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Cincinnati

[Matt Robertson]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think you will be excited about the next few major updates and the direction of the Android app in general. Your first four suggestions have already been implemented in the beta for 1.3 which should be released in the next couple of weeks if everything goes as planned. Bookmarks and text highlighting are the key features planned for 1.4, and an adjustable pane divider is tentatively planned for the release following that one.

 

Support for more fonts, page turning, and multi-tab are on our long term to-do list but do not have a release timeframe yet.

 

I like your suggestion about swiping through tools in a pane. The mobile environment presents some unique challenges with regard to clean but effective navigation, and this could potentially be one way to improve it. I'll definitely keep this suggestion in mind as the app develops and the UI changes.