I would really like an option that is something like "7 days around NSW" and it gives you a circuit passing through a variety of areas throughout the state. Eg:
Sydney - Wollongong - Goulburn - Wagga - Forbes - Bathurst - Blue Mountains - Sydney.
Edit: I take it back about my first point, it does do Blue Mountains if you plug it in, but it was being weird for a bit and kept showing me the same Syd - Melb trip no matter what I plugged in, so I thought it wanted a capital-to-capital connection.
Plugging in a few family-fav trips and it seems to hit most the major points I would personally recommend.
I like that each place links to Wikipedia, but I don't think that was obvious at first. I actually only noticed on my re-visit of the site to see if the places had a "more info" link or something, and completely missed that they were links on my first look through.
I would probably add links to Wikitravel over Wikipedia, but maybe that's just me. I like how it summarises the key tourist attractions and eateries and stuff.
On the final version of the site, I would definitely consider pulling in some photos of the places when you expand the breakdown. People who travel/roadtrip generally like visuals, which is exactly why so many of the roadtrip guides look more like photography magazines. I'm not sure how you'd do that and keep it looking so clean/minimal (which I quite like), but I do think it's important.
We used to link cities, towns, national parks to Wikivoyage (same content as Wikitravel, but without ads). All POIs within populated places linked to Wikipedia.
You are right about visuals. Totally. I don't know where to get them from... The idea was to plug smbd's knowledge graph, with structured POIs, with curated text, pics and videos. We could easily land you by coordinates to Google Street View instead of Wikipedia. But we don't know yet what people want.
Themes is another big feature. Family or adventure or culture. Known how to do that, just not doing it right now. Thank you again for very consistent and useful feedback. This is going to impact our planning.
I would add something like timeline for activities/scenery like morning afternoon evening. Not too bloat I think.
Keeping data meta, I think, is a good way to go. No identity attached, no personal photos. Just all info going from A to B. So it's folk-able. I really like the toggle(switch) buttons, I hope it's not linking to external service (oh it is).
I had put thoughts so much on this kind of apps and it's abandon because I wasn't able to think of how it's monetized.
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Can I ask where's your data/pricing from, if your source is not secret?
We keep it simple intentionally. Can plug any knowledge graph of POIs and experiences, any rooms and homes, and multi-modal transportation (not only car).
So far togglers are only for you. If you booked smth, you mark it for yourself.
(example output: https://scoutmaps.io/maps/17-portland-for-visitors/places/13...)
It's much more of a 'blank canvas' approach - I travel a lot, and I wanted something that's basically a geographically-aware notes app.
Currently in private beta, but if you want to get on the list shoot me an email (qr@qrohlf.com).
:)
The one thing with Australia, I'd probably try to highlight the types of roads / ability to set road type preference.
I.E in a small hatchback I'd want to avoid unsealed roads, most rental companies will disallow them in the t&c's + you don't want to get stuck on them. However on a offroad/adventure bike / 4x4 i'd want to find the most remote, gnarliest roads possible.
I'll probably use this to find points of interest / general route then use the Hema 4WD maps to find a more specific / interesting route.
Also you might do well branding / marketing /designing the site for the grey nomads. A lot of them use https://www.wikicamps.com.au/ and pay to use it, they have money to spend. Some cross integration with sites in wikicamps would be useful also.
It’s a big country, and mostly empty.
I guess the team went there, saw it, and decided to work on a website for it.
If I enter an 'aggressive' timeframe, is it intentional that it assumes I have longer time than shown? (Sydney to Hobart, no waypoints, 4 days - it insists that the minimum time this trip can take is 11 days).
Small UX things - I like to tab between fields, and use keyboard shortcuts for drop-downs - I would like to be able to select '2 tourists' by pressing the number 2. Date-pickers are always horrible - Monday as first day of week would be great, option to text-enter ISO periods ditto.
It's ~ (9 + 3) hours of actual driving, with an overnight ferry ride in the middle, btw. Anything involving a ferry or similar will complicate an algorithm, I'm sure. I'm assuming you basically ignore captive travel time in those situations?
I had not experimented with the budget constraints originally. I note that if I put in 4 days & $2000 it offers trips of 13-15 days and $3000-4400. With 4 days and $3000 budget the trips are 10-14 days and $2600-3900.
By the way I am webdesigner and if you wish hire me as a designer or tester for your IT projects, this is my email: dizayner.design@gmail.com
Also I will be glad find friends from over the globe :)
We did not design UI at all, because we are thinking of voice interface. You are telling your desires and constraints in conversation. They are captured. Then API is called.
Adelaide Daylesford, Victoria Grampians National Park Melbourne
Adelaide is start, Melbourne is finish. Two waypoints in the middle, could be routed, could be skipped, depending on time, budget, comfort, curiosity levels.
