Do you like the new "in-ride look"?
I always try to be positive about new user interfaces. I always try to recognize the advantages of new UIs. In my previous job I designed a lot of UIs.
But this new updated UI does not work for me. The legacy UI was a very good looking UI (It had some roughness, but was a nice, modern UI). The new rounded corner boxes are pointless, the grey background color is ugly, and not harmonic. The legacy UI was much more modern this new UI is just old fashioned and outdated. The large upcoming elevation graph black background on a black screen looked very good, the new grey graph is just ugly. The legacy UI gave higher contrast feeling, the new grey color brings low contrast feeling.
My suggestions for Hammerhead are rethink and tweak this new UI and/or make an option to use the legacy UI (my main buying decision to Karoo was the good looking UI). The best would be it you keep the style of the legacy UI and make small updates and error corrections on it. It the new boxes layout is a must have (for future functions), you have a much more better way to design a boxed layout.
Please review this new UI!
What do you think?
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I would like to expand with data my dissatisfaction with this new interface of layouts.
In my case I have the page with 10 data fields (I have already indicated it previously)
With the layout of 10 data fields, before the update the size of the digits was 69px high
Now, with the update and with the HammerHead advertising, the new layouts should improve visibility.
Well, with the new layout of 10 data fields, the height of the digits is 48px, that is, the size of the digits has been reduced (which is what really matters when we look at the screen) by 30%
How can reducing the size of the digits by 30% improve visibility?
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WTF Hammerhead.. You've made the data numbers smaller
Why???
I really can't believe all the things K2 owner's have asked for to improve the device and you have a meeting and decide to make the data harder to see. Just what is going on or does nobody actually know or care anyone .. -
I thought I would at least go for a ride with it before responding...
- On the map screen I run 2 data fields at the top. Actually where there previously was a horizontal 5mm of black nothing, there seems to be a bit more map
- However, the one thing that really needed fixing.... When the "drawers" pop up, it still hides the arrow on the map!!!! I just dont understand the rationale behind such a big change and not even fixing the obvious bugs that would not even be that hard to fix. Multiple people have asked for the arrow to re-centre when this happens
- The data screen, my what a mess. I am sure the data metrics were there somewhere... I am wondering if anyone at HH actually rides a bike and tested this?
TBH aside from usability, the format of the datascreens I would have said were part of the HH brand - maybe not to all tastes but with a few tweaks (*increased* font size) could have been just about there, mainly though very much recognisable. What we have now looks a bit like a college IT assignment...
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It is so weird.... they have great examples in particulary Wahoo to show them how to do UI, typefaces and readability and then that come up with this?
Have raised this point several times to them, and actually this was one of the points for me to sell my Karoo 2 for now.When I saw this update coming in, I was almost regretting selling the unit because in the change log I expected them to come up with a great UI! But no... boxes with rounded edges, smaller typeface for data, really, really ugly...
It is a shame, this unit and company has so much potential... -
It is 45 replies while I post my opinion. It is one of the busiest thread on this forum. It seems everyone (here, on reddit, on facebook groups) do not like / hate the new UI.
My suggestions for Hammerhead:
- Reply to customers (at least here) to calms down the mood. My opinion it can stops the sudden Karoo sales by the customers
- If it is technically possible post a workflow how can we downgrade to 1.386.1509
- If the downgrade is not possible roll out a new firmware as soon as you can with the legacy UI
- If you do not want to use the legacy UI (some reason), you should redesign the new UI to looks very-very(!) good until the next release, and you should communicate this intention to us. My opinion it is necessary because as you can read here (and on reddit and on facebook groups) the users are indignant on the new UI, and as you can see from the number of replies this is a very important factor of the Karoo users. I do not think worth it to loose a lot of customers with just a self-serving UI design.
- You should rethink if you would like to work in the future with the UI designer(s) who did this, and the QA(s) who accepted this.
I know these are hard words from me, but this is a hard mistake from you.
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Has there been any user testing done with this UI for people with vision impairments or problems? I'd be keen to know as from a visual accessibility standpoint this is a disaster.
Updated this morning and didn't mind it to be honest, it looks ok. However, as others have pointed out text is smaller. The biggest problem is contrast for me. I wear glasses but don't wear on the bike. I refuse to wear my expensive glasses when I'm riding my bike as I've broken a pair before.
Have been on a 4 hour gravel ride with new UI. It's very difficult to see the smaller text. Not just because of text size but also because of the contrast between the text, box and main background on the screen.
Once riding over gravel, with the vibrations on the bike and my own body, it's utterly impossible to read.I now have to stop to be able to read any data.
I'd be keen to hear from anyone with colour blindness on how they find being able to distinguish what's onscreen.
Not to be all negative some of the new graphical fields are welcome. However, you're going to need to sort the data fields out so that the text, icon and number can be big enough for anyone without 20/20 vision to read when moving.
Worst part is, now with the sale in the UK, you won't even get a decent return for selling the unit on. -
if any hammerhead staff is reading this, PLEASE at least provide an option to revert to the previous UI style. This update is terrible and is really distracting and breaks the usability of the the device for me.
I'm all set to buy a K3 if/when one drops, but that's not happening until this UI change is reverted or an option is provided to use the previous graphics.
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Part of the appeal of the Karoo was that I understood the developers and community worked together.
Here we are a day later and not a whisper from anyone within Hammerhead. There is only one thing worse than no community and that's having one where the company we have all invested money in simply don't respond.
This is happening here. As it stands I'll not be buying a K3, nor will I continue to recommend to friends that they by a Karoo full-stop. To change something so fundamental to the appeal of your device, and to change it in such a ham-fisted and poorly-designed way takes some doing, but that's what you've currently achieved. As Stuart F mentions this will also negatively impact the resale of K2's that have received this update.
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I will also chime in and say overall the UI layout is not great and I preferred the old style. The biggest issue for me is the drop in font size for the data fields. I don't need bigger labels. I know exactly what data is on what field. I need the numbers to be as big as possible because my eyesight went to hell after 40something and I don't ride with prescription glasses. It's a big step back for me and I cant upgrade until the font size is fixed.
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A complete and utter disaster. The new UI is so bad and so hard to look at it gives a nice headache. Thank goodness I have other units to put on my bike because after this utter incompetence of this hot mess, the Karoo 2 sits in the drawer rendered useless. If this is the new direction, no thanks. Hard pass.
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Looks like someone has no idea that the fundamental purpose of the device is to give IN RIDE data to the user. Putting boarders around the data fields, and adding extra white space for potentially long field descriptors is a huge backwards step. My old Wahoo has less screen area, is b+w and is way more readable in general, dont get me started about readability during a hard interval session.
Who ever did this needs to be tied to a bike and forced to read out data fields whilst being chased by a pack of unhappy users with the latest update.
It is so bad that I am thinking of going to Garmin or back to my trusty Wahoo.
I'm sure there is lots of backend things (but power seemed off to me, could be bad day) that have been "improved" but how can you miss the fundamental use case that someone needs data with sweat dripping in their eyes and cages trying to kill you at every turn. BIGGER font, ensure max readability (some of us are getting old so may need reading glasses) above all else. It is not a phone, it is a training and direction device. Readability is the first thing, then functions, then decorations.
Talking of which why is there now a little icon in the field and the txt description of the field. Useless clutter.
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Hi everyone,
Thanks for providing your feedback on the new look of the data-fields.
While these may not be solving all the problems, but we assure you that we are moving in a direction that we believe would make our product stronger and better for our riders in the long term. The changes are fundamental to significant improvements coming down the line.
We understand that some of the real concerns are around shrinking of the data values and contrast of the background.
We have heard your feedback and are investigating how to make some of this adjustable. Thanks again!!
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