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I have four years programming GUI for industry and a background in computer science. --Doug Parker

New additions are at the top of the wiki page.

5/28/2008

Multiple Security Locations When the PIN isn't entered properly, a splash screen appears reminding the user to go to their security location and the unit will unlock. 1) allow for multiple security locations (easy to implement using Favorites and adding a new setting in Favorites), and 2) allow for a larger radius surrounding the security location.

5/13/2008

Quick Mute Make the 550's volume pushbutton the mute button when you press and hold it. Quick press-and-release brings up the volume level.

This would be similar to pressing and holding the page button to bring up the screen brightness controller, while a quick press-and-releaes of the page button cycles through the different screens.

Mark mp3s for removal Add a button to remove a song from the active playlist, but move it to a location where it can be manually moved off the unit on to a computer. Don't delete it, just disable it until a later time.

1/24/2008

Is anyone from Garmin developer community who's doing the coding changes to the Zumo 550, and others, actually reading this? Please email me at ispinn at gmail -dot- com and let me know. I'd love to hear that some of my suggestions are driving some cool changes to come. Thanks!

12/20/2007

MP3 Playback Options There are two options for playing mp3s on the 550; SHUFFLE and REPEAT. The method by which the SHUFFLE determines which files to play is not robust--I have 250 songs and will hear repeats within an hour of the start of a trip.

Consider changing the name of the current SHUFFLE button to RANDOM, making its random number generator more robust, and changing the programming behind the function of the current SHUFFLE button, making the new SHUFFLE button essentially a non-repeating random function (until all songs have played, when it restarts). How cool would that be!

Quick Mute Make a quick press of the POWER BUTTON a

mute

and

resume volume

button. Leave the press-and-hold as the procedure for shutting down the unit.

10/20/2007

Deleting Favorites Try deleting a previously saved favorite and get a dose of the most awkward sequences of buttons I've ever experienced on my 550.

  • Where to?
  • Favorites
  • Scroll until the target to delete is found. Tap the target.
  • Tap Edit
  • Scroll down to Delete
  • Click the Delete button

How about shortening it and changing the sequence to

  • Where to?
  • Favorites
  • Scroll until the target to delete is found. Tap the target.
  • Add a Delete button and simply click Delete

Simplify the button-pressing Click the Tools button, click the System button, click the GPS Mode button. Why in the world would I want to have to select something and confirm it, when the previous screen could very simply cycle through the three options and be done with it?

The GPS Mode button could be programmed with two types of taps; a quick tap cycles through the options available, a tap-and-hold could bring up the list of three options that requires a confirmation I mentioned above.

9/23/2007

Trip Notes Odometer Feature

Add a trip notes facility to track incidents and service items on the unit.

Click the

Event Odometer

hot spot below... 

 ---------------------------------------
 |              -------                |
 | ---------    |speed|     --------   |
 | |compass|    | mph |     | fuel |   |
 | ---------    -------     --------   |
 |                                     |
 | ----------  ----------  ----------- |
 | |standard|  |event   |  | fuel    | |
 | |odometer|  |odometer|  | odometer| |
 | ----------  ----------  ----------- |
 |                                     |
 |-------------------------------------|
 |    Back   |   Reset...  |  More     |
 ---------------------------------------

to display a screen of pre-programmed and user programmable trip event buttons

Fuel stop
RR tire
Engine work
<user 1>
<user 2>
<user 3>

etc. The event and the odometer reading would be entered into the Zumo's memory. I'm immediately returned to the navigation screen.

For example, while on the road I replace my front tire. I'd like to be able to save the odometer reading and the event in memory. I click the

Event Odometer

I click

RR Tire

The data is saved in the 550's memory, and I'm immediately placed back to the navigation screen. It's simple, it's quick, and it's very handy.

Synchronize the Garmin with the bike's actual Odometer reading

Create an option to synchronize the Zumo's odometer with the bike's odometer. When the events are saved, the mileage will be nearly identical to the bike's mileage indicator (given some fluff for error) for that event--this is something that A LOT of riders are going to want.

9/22/2007

What can be done to increase the gain on the high end? At high speeds, there simply isn't enough volume in the headphones.

6/9/2007

Allow the power button (a soft-programmed button) to be the pause button for the MP3 player in all modes. When the power/pause button is pressed quickly, it acts as a pause button for the MP3 player. When the button is held down, it functions as a power button.

The pronunciation of the street name

Conway Rd

is not accurate or clear. Currently it sounds like

con-`WAY

and it needs to be

`CON-way

I have my preference set to view the map Track Up, but when I tap the screen to get the scrollable map, it switches to North Up. I would think the scrollable map display preference would be the same as my preference, or have a separate preference for the scrollable map.

Initial submission

Integrate a velocity-sensing volume control option on the MP3 player.

Let the motorcyclist choose if the volume level drops as the bike slows. Add options for

  • Volume level at speed, and a
  • Volume level at rest (or a percentage decrease)
  • Velocity-sensing volume control on/off

setting.

More keyboard options can be added

Add a QWERTY keyboard option (Yes--there is enough horizontal space for all keys. Even if you don't think there is, provide the option anyway because some riders will prefer it.) Add a FITALY keyboard option (see http://tinyurl.com/3amebs)

Give the motorcyclist the option to choose which keyboard layout she wants.

It's time-consuming to have to spell the city name every time.

Where to? >>> In What City is the Address? Have three buttons on the page:

  • <soft-coded button to display the last city>
  • Spell City
  • Search All

so riding in central Florida I would most likely see

  • Orlando
  • Spell City
  • Search All

Another option might be to have 6-9 buttons, with 4-7 buttons soft coded to display the last cities searched in the user's history. This would really be nice. 

 <soft-coded 1>   <soft-coded 4>   <soft-coded 7>
 <soft-coded 2>   <soft-coded 5>     Spell City
 <soft-coded 3>   <soft-coded 6>     Search All

Entering the city name streamlined

When pressing the 123 button, cycle through the different keyboards, instead of branching to a page that requires a selection and a confirmation of the keyboard desired. When pressing the Mode button, similarly cycle through the different keyboard layout options available. Leave the Mode and 123 buttons visible at all times until Done is pressed.

3/15/2007

MP3 player has a navigation window option on the top left.

Using the MP3 player, tapping the album information brings up details about the song.

Nice, but it would be nicer to be able to tap the upper LEFT corner and toggle between album info and a small window of navigation map--after all most of us use both maps and the MP3 player at the same time.

Common MP3 player buttons ghosted on the navigation screen

When viewing maps, provide common MP3 player soft-buttons on the screen. Currently there are

  • + and
  • -

soft buttons at the top right and top left for zooming the map in and out. Make the map screen more functional by adding soft keys for some of the common MP3 buttons--

  • pause
  • play
  • volume up
  • volume down

Eliminate some of the confirmation screens.

There are too many unnecessary confirmation screens. Some of these can simply be eliminated, while others can be replaced by looping through options available at the touch of a button.

The fewer buttons I need to press, the more user friendly the unit becomes.

Orlando has a street names changes at intersections

Driving in Orlando, many street names change at the intersections (stupid, IMHO, but that's how it is). If my Garmin can detect and report which intersections I'm approaching that have two street names, and mention both street names, it would be nice since sometimes the intersection doesn't clearly sign each street, and many times only one of the two street names is visible.

(For a sample intersection, search for the Orlando, FL intersection of Semoran Bl. and TG Lee Bl. Semoran Bl. continues through the intersection, but traveling north or south on Semoran Bl. it intersects with both TG Lee Bl. and Frontage Rd.)

If both street names were mentioned, then either could be used as confirmation that the correct intersection has been identified.

Where to?

Change the size of the buttons on the Where to screen so I don't have to scroll down to see all my options. Alternately, give me the choice in my user options to choose if I need to see the icons or not. If I just want text on the buttons, they become small enough that they'll fit on one screen instead of two.

The more often I can see all of my options at once, the more user friendly the unit becomes.

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