I have a few little annoyances about MiraCheck that I’m hoping you’ll consider providing options to address for end users.
Often when I use MiraCheck, I want to check an item that is not the currently highlighted item. When I go to “check” the item, I often just click on the words in the item. This does not check the item, it simply highlights the item and then shifts that item up to the center. I then must refocus on where it moved to and tap on it a second time. It appears that if you tap on the actual check box that it will check the item immediately and then move it up, whereas if you tap on the words, it does not check the item but moves it up. I have also noticed you can’t get to the notes/comments section of an item unless it is also the highlighted item. That means if you just want to open a note, you have to first “select” the item, which shifts the entire list up/down so that item is centered, and then you have to click a 2nd time in the upper right corner to try and open up the notes/comments. All this moving/shifting around of the list automatically while flying can be very frustrating when you already focused on the list and positioned you finger in the spot you want, only to have to refocus and re-shift the target for your fingers.
I am sure the system is working “as designed” in the way I just described. That being said, I don’t like it. There are a few options I would love added to your system in the preferences section.
- The ability to open the notes/comments of any item when the item is NOT the currently selected item. Sometimes I just want to open a note on another item that is not the currently highlighted item. Having to select the item first, have the entire list re-center, refocus to where it shifted and then try to tap on the tiny little note/comment icon is very frustrating. It is made even more frustrating when you are in turbulence and bouncing around.
- PLEASE provide an option in the Preferences section to disable the need to select an item first before opening the notes/comments.
- The ability to disable having the list shift up/down whenever you select an item. This is by far the most frustrating “feature” to me. I realize what you guys are attempting to accomplish. You are trying to make it so you can just keep your thumb in the same spot and just keep tapping and the list will move down to the next spot for you. Nice in theory, but in practice, I really hate it. I would prefer to just be able to scroll the list myself and tap on any item regardless of location vertically (top of screen, bottom of screen) to work with it without the entire list shifting on me. If you’d like more detail on why I dislike the current system, I’d be happy to elaborate.
- PLEASE provide an option in the Preferences section to disable the auto-shifting of the list up/down in a column to the center point.
- The ability to check on/off an item when ANY part of the item is tapped when it is NOT the currently highlighted item (except for the top right corner when a note/comment exists.) As I indicated, I often like to tap on the words of the entire item because it’s an easier target than trying to aim for the actual check box. I also tap on the words because the checkbox is on the left side of the column and I’m tapping with my right thumb. On an iPad, the checkbox is just a bit out of reach of your thumb when you have the list pulled up as an overlay overtop an EFB app. The words are a much easier target to hit, but again, tapping the words only works if the item is the currently selected item and thus it gets shifted to the center of the screen. This shift, in turbulence, effectively moves the “target” for your thumb so you now have to RE-focus while flying to find out where the item moved to so that you can re-position your thumb to get the item checked.
- PLEASE provide an option in the Preferences section to allow an item to be “checked” regardless of what part of the item you tap on when it is not the currently highlighted item.
- I exclusively use the checklist as an overlay over my EFB when flying. I do this because when I have the full app open, any current list I’m working on shifts to the left-hand side of the iPad. Because of where I position my iPad in my cockpit, selecting items is best accomplished by gripping the iPad with my right hand and using my thumb to check off items. Because the column has now be shifted to the far-left side of the screen, I can no longer tap the icons with my right thumb very easily. I think by now you have seen a common thread in needing this app to work well in turbulence. When you are bouncing around, devices that require manipulation in the cockpit really need to have a way for you to rest and steady your hand on something solid so you can tap/click/turn/push, etc. The same is true with the iPad. I need a way to grip the iPad so I can tap on the screen effectively. Because of this, the location of the item on the screen becomes even more important to accurately tap on it and having the list shift to the left is not the ideal position for me.
- PLEASE provide an option in the Preferences section to disable shifting the “active” section/column to left. I’d like an option to disable all shifting in addition to an option to shift the column to the right on tap.
In all, I really like your product and I appreciate all your hard work on it. I appreciate that you are trying to automate the product for users that like that type of thing, be it the audio call outs, the shifting around of columns/items automatically, etc. I’d just ask that you continue to remember there are pilots out there though that do like those same types of features and very much appreciate the option to change how those things work. I’m all for cool features, as long as they are optional.