Use cases for Quest Presets

[smichel17]

See #1654 and especially #1654 (comment) for context.

Here's what I'd like to do:

• Every top-level comment describes a use case which could be solved with a preset.
• In the replies thread, propose StreetComplete features to solve only that specific use case. In other words, describe an ideal "display mode" (or modes) for that use case.
  • What changes should be made to quest visibility & priority?
  • When / How often / For how long will this mode be used?
• Back in Add quest presets #1654, compare the the designs and let the similarities guide which features would be best to implement.

Recommendations:

• Be specific — It's really easy to get sucked into generalizing, but let's discover the patterns based on which use cases we actually come up with, not make up patterns that may or may not exist. Same for features — leave generalizing for Add quest presets #1654.
  • Example: in the first comment, I caught myself writing it about "people who care about some particular category of quests" as opposed to my specific category, navigation quests.
• Use a checklist for quest lists — they are easy to re-order later (for deciding on priority order)

[smichel17]

Use case: Walking/wandering around looking for important quests to answer; cares mostly about navigation.

• Won't seek out low-priority quests, but will answer them opportunistically while walking.
• Too many quests cluttering the screen makes it hard to decide where to go.
• Answering low priority quests should not slow down walking & prevent actually making it to the high priority quests.

High priority quests:

• Road name
• House number
• Street of numbered house
• One-way
• Lanes
• Parking restrictions
• Parking payment
• Surface type
• Speed limit
• Parking type
• Motorcycle parking capacity
• Building type (maybe — for identifying parking lots)

[westnordost]

Ah, this is sad.

See tangrams/tangram-es#2112

[westnordost]

Yes to all the points.

The dot approach works like this: For each quest, actually two elements on the map are shown: The pin and behind that (with a lower priority), a dot. On higher zoom levels, the dots are set to not collide with anything, meaning they are always shown. On lower zoom levels, they collide as normal with the pins and other dots and thus are not shown if they are near other dots/pins whose quest type have a higher priority.

[mnalis]

This Use case one of more popular of my modes of operation too, but my definition of "High priority quests" for navigation-related is very different from yours (probably because my transportation is mostly bicycle/foot/public_transport instead of a car):

• solve open notes
• One-way
• cycleway / footway / bicycle parking quests
• Surface type / track firmness
• ramp on steps (and number of steps if no ramp)
• road smoothness (via notes for now - no quest yet)
• road lit
• ferry transport options (only because it is very rare and I'm already waiting there if I'm mapping it)
• Road name
• House address (number & street)
• bus stop quests
• opening hours (esp. ticket offices / platforms from train/bus/ferry, and gas stations / shops for water/fuel)
• blind people / wheelchair quests
• information board quest
• ATM bank operator (not really navigation per se, but helps when you need cash to pay for it)

[westnordost]

Use case: I am on a bus.

[westnordost]

Possible feature: While on a bus, hide those quests that can likely not be solved as a passenger (automatically)

Possible feature: Same as above, but semi-automatically - "You seem to be on a bus, shall I disable quests you cannot solve here?"

[mnalis]

Possible features: possible list of solvable quests from bus might be:

• solve open notes (maybe)
• name/ref of this bus stop (when stopped)
• bust stop shelter and bench (when stopped)
• One-way (of current / intersecting road)
• cycleway / footway (around the road bus is driving on)
• Surface type (of current / intersecting road)
• road lit (of current / intersecting road)
• lanes for cars (of current / intersecting road)
• ferry transport options (rare)
• what is being cultivated (maybe)
• recycling facility type / what can be recycled (if near the road)
• sport type of pitch (maybe)
• trees needles / leaves
• structure of bridge
• is building completed
• type of parking (maybe)
• bench backrest
• material of power pole
• building type

[michaelblyons]

In my area, when I'm on a bus, I can add the names of bus stops (from the in-bus audio announcer and display). When I'm off the bus, I can add the refs of bus stops (from the sign). It's quite silly.

[BalooUriza]

In my area, when I'm on a bus, I can add the names of bus stops (from the in-bus audio announcer and display). When I'm off the bus, I can add the refs of bus stops (from the sign). It's quite silly.

That's not even a reliable bet in a lot of places. For example, the 700 AERO Peoria line in Tulsa, the stop names in no way reflect what's actually announced and shown on the bus. On the bus, the autoannouncer doesn't say the station names, it says the name of the streets that intersect last before the stop. So, 31st Street ends up being South Peoria Avenue and East 30th Place on the announcer. Trimet doesn't name any of its bus stops except for transit centers and park and rides. What gets announced at unnamed stops is the nearest intersection (instead of previous intersection), but it's a pretty long stretch to call that a name.

[peternewman]

In the UK, or certainly in London, I've a good chance of getting the stop name (and the local ref, but not the ref) from the bus stop when the bus stops at it.

Possible feature: Same as above, but semi-automatically - "You seem to be on a bus, shall I disable quests you cannot solve here?"

Surely at best it can detect you're in a motor vehicle, it will struggle to tell you're in a bus unless you've already stopped at a few bus stops but with enough traffic to not be stopping elsewhere?

• roof type

[westnordost]

Use case: I am new to OpenStreetMap / StreetComplete and I am overwhelmed and demotivated by the sheer flood of things to answer that are in my opinion super irrelevant.

[westnordost]

Possible feature: After first quest download (if density is above X?), inform the user about that he can disable quests in the settings and provide him a link to it.

Possible feature: (Additionally) offer a shortcut for him to automatically disable many quests that come in big numbers are perceived as not so relevant

[mnalis]

Possible feature: show only a limited number of high-usability quests by default, like:

• street name
• housenumber
• oneway
• surface
• lit
• sidewalk/cycleway quests
• opening hours

(but leave it configurable in settings as they are now, as there is no way two users will consider same things as important!),

and then provide a quick button to disable filtering (eg. to show all quest types) for those moments when user is bored and everything important around has been mapped already)

[smichel17]

Possible feature: limit quest density.

• Do not show quests (at all, even as a dot) that have X visible, higher-priority quests within Y meters.
  • Maybe X and Y should be different based on the priority of the quest. It's okay to show lots of quests if they are all high priority, but lower priority quests are shown less densely.
• Maybe also an absolute limit on the number of quests which can be shown nearby at a given time.

This way the user doesn't actually have to disable lower-priority quests to make them disappear temporarily. Answering quests would make new (lower-priority) quests appear, if they exist, but just scrolling the map would not.

[mnalis]

Possible feature: order quests by their importance. Downloads most important quest in radius X meters around user. Only if total number of displayed quest is less than Y (where Y is small number that we consider won't overwhelm user) proceed to the next quest lower in priority. Repeat until we reach Y quests, or we have nothing more to show, whatever happens fist.

Optional: instead of having different priorities quest by quest, it might be priority-group by priority-group (eg. housenumber and housestreet and oneway might be priority group 1, road surface and sidewalk and lit might be priority group 2, [...] building type and number of floors and roof type might be priority group 9) - that would help in very quest-dense area to show some quest variety to user, while still promoting most useful quests.

[georg-d]

After a while (e.g. each time after solving 100 quests so when user got some experience), remind user that other quests exist but are invisible due to the "beginners prest" and suggest to switch to another preset.

[mnalis]

Use case: I'm on the bicycle, and only want to stop/start the bicycle to map important (to me) quests (for personal cycling use in the future)

[mnalis]

Possible feature: only show quests that user has defined as important enough to him (user-configurable preset) to stop cycling in order to solve them. That may include various things (depending on the user, who should be able to configure them!), but usually most of them are bicycle related like this list for me:

• bicycle shops / repair stations
• cycling infrastructure
• road oneway/surface/smoothness
• road lit status
• working hours of pubs/cafes/convenience shops/etc to replenish water / food)
• leave note (with picture) for missing stuff indicated above

but notably does not include important quests that require them to stop all the time (like housenumber quest).

[mnalis]

Possible feature: on crossings where the bicycle user is often already stopped / off the bike (due to red lights or railway crossing, for example), less important quests (like type of crossing etc.) might by asked too if user wants that (no extra work required in software - as users would set in their user-configurable preset if/what they want such quests)

[smichel17]

I am having a hard time imagining answering any type of quest while actually riding. Do you do this? I'm trying to figure out whether you are proposing to show only "quests that can be completed while riding", "quests worth stopping for", or a combination of both.

You've given a couple examples, but I would appreciate if you made a full list — both to help figure out what the categories may be, and for deciding what quests should be included in the default cycling preset (I am guessing we'll probably want one of these).

edit: for some reason your edit into a list did not appear for me when I wrote this…

[peternewman]

I don't cycle, but similar to walking, could you not also do some of the ones that need a certain amount of travelling (e.g. lit, surface, speed limit, pavement, cycleway) as you cycle along a major road, finding out what you need to check while checking directions/waiting at traffic lights.

[mnalis]

Use case: I'm bored and waiting outside (due to COVID-19) for wife to return from shopping

[mnalis]

sure, rearrange at will. I find it quickest to just "reset" and enable few quests missing by default (vegeterian, speedlimit, ...) manually (so I have final result of all quests enabled). Then later when I'm done I have to setup it again (there are actually two "normal"/"defaults" -- depending if I'm pedestrian [more quests] or cyclist [less]) - that part is the painful one, which should be solved somehow (save quest status / load quests? or presets idea)

[peternewman]

So essentially this preset is EVERYTHING @mnalis ? And you don't care about order/priority, aside from I guess it makes sense to still do more important quests?

I suppose arguably it might make sense if this preset prioritised the slowest quests by default, as they are the ones the commuter and normal pedestrian might not have time to do, whereas by definition you're trapped in one place for 30 mins/1 hour.

[mnalis]

@peternewman yes EVERYTHING, with priorities (as I might not get a chance to map everything, and some might be unsolvable from the ground like roof type of high building, and I do not want them obscuring other, more usuful quests). Good idea to make useful but slow questions like opening_hours higher priority in this case!

[peternewman]

Do you want to try and come up with a list of slower quests then @mnalis ?

I think things like roof type should be there because they may be solvable, but as you say maybe lower down as there is nothing hidden below them in case they can't be solved due to building height.

[mnalis]

@peternewman Seems there is misunderstanding here, I do not know what your mean with come up with a list of slower quests? I do agree with you that ALL quests should be included in this scenario, I'd just like that some quests are lower priority than others. (in order for possibly unsolvable quests not to blocking other, more important quests)

[smichel17]

This is a thread for meta-discussion, not a use case. If I'd thought ahead, I would have reserved the top comment for this. Oh, well.

[mnalis]

The problem with longThinBbox() idea though, is that it is not going to be thin, unless you happen to be moving in direction which is very near 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees compared to the North. Eg. if you're moving at 45 degrees (eg. to the North-East), it is going to become longThickBbox() instead (eg. simply big bbox as long as it is wide), due to the way bbox works (lines or bboxes are always parallel or orthogonal to North-South direction, never at the any other angle)

[peternewman]

Even if you keep the same Bbox though, and have you placed at 6 o'clock (rather than in the middle as currently), you've doubled the useful area you're loading, without changing the size of the data being loaded.

However while this works for a train, on a car or bus, at least in a town, there can be regular 90 degree changes of movement (or even the occasional 180). With a car at least you could average the general direction of travel, and this sort of works with a bus but probably less successfully depending on the time you're averaging over.

[georg-d]

I think this doesn't need profiles, though. SC could detect how fast you're moving and change the size/shape of the bbox based on this, automatically.

While auto-sizing & auto-shaping based on getCurrentMovementDirection() will probably work perfectly well when following mostly straight streets like motorways, I doubt it till work sufficiently well in mountain areas with many cuves & turns, or in cities when going "in zig-zag". For such cases, I suggest to add a "rough route drawing" alternative to download ahead if I know in advance where I will move along - as a by-catch, this is also helpful for mountain area where we're also often having no/slow mobile network connection and/or GPS position is not reliable (e.g. time between two tunnels/galleries is insufficent for a GPS fix when driving at the bottom of a narrow valley and additionally having leafs, clouds etc) - see #3183's "download along GPX track" and/or "download inside polygon defined by GPX track" approach.

[georg-d]

For several presets discussed here, IMHO it makes sense to distinguish day and night mode. For example, when sitting in a car in a rural area, at night, usually only a limited area in front of my car will be visible while to both sides, everything is dark. As a consequence, we shall better change the downloaded area for some quests, e.g. I can tell the surface of roads going off in 90° from the road my car is going along only at day time, while at night, I can tell whether a road or sport center is lit from a much bigger distance than in cities. Toggle between day & night could be automatically done via ambient light sensor (average ligth in last 5 minutes) and additionally, a manual override shall exist (e.g. when mobile is facing the dark interior of the car thus ambient light sensor is mislead).

[smichel17]

FYI, it was not linked here, but discussion of the auto-sizing suggestion continued in #3052 and was ultimately rejected for similar reasons (too complex and there will always be edge cases which it does not work in, leading to more feature requests & maintenance burden)

[smichel17]

Use case: On foot, completing all address quests type within a limited area

I split this out from #2457 (comment) since I realized I was mixing up two different use cases.

I was frustrated at OSMAnd's inability to start navigation based on an address, due in part to missing addresses. So I finally resolved that, any time I had to use Google (via AddressToGPS, now defunct) to find the GPS coordinates for OSMAnd to navigate to, I'd map the addresses in the immediate area, so I could use OSMAnd address search the next time I had to return to that spot.

[smichel17]

Proposed feature: Pick a fixed location. Show only the following quests, within a small-medium radius (e.g. 300-500m). If the user solves them all, display a celebratory animation.

• Road name
• House number
  • Building type, if required (depending on the result of Give priority to address (housenumber) quest #2464)
• Street of numbered house

[peternewman]

Should it be by radius, or by number of quests to keep the level constant and manageable regardless of location/detail mapped/population density?

[georg-d]

IMHO this is too specific to be a out-of-the-box preset.

[smichel17]

I think the functionality could be generalized to also handle your use gpx track use case in #3183

[georg-d]

@smichel17 Indeed, this use case's "within a limited area" part could re-use #3183's "download along GPX track" and/or "download inside polygon defined by GPX track" approach, and #3183 could re-use this use case's "set center and radius for download". I extended #3183 accordingly. In contrast, this use case's limitation to show exclusively address quests would not be useful for #3183 as these quests are rare in #3183's areas like mountains.

[smichel17]

Use case: going on a walk (for fresh air / exercise)

• Route is planned partially by where quests are available, partially by what's a nice walk (e.g. I prefer not to backtrack).
• Goal is either:
  1. Answer all quests in that neighborhood.
     or
  2. Keep a steady walking speed — answering quests should not slow me down too much.
• Higher priority quests are still preferred, but not as big a deal.

This is how I've done most of my mapping.

[smichel17]

Proposed Feature: Select a route; StreetComplete hides all quests that are not along the route.

Proposed Feature (option 2): same thing, plus:

• Only show an evenly spaced subset of quests along the route.
• Completing quests does not cause new ones to appear, until the walk is finished (user arrives at destination or exits walking mode).
  • To help completionists not slow themselves down 😆

[mnalis]

this is actually two completely different use cases for me (one is "I map all of this region I've charted for myself no matter how long it takes" - quest priority is not a big deal here. And other case is "I walk from here to there, mapping along things that don't slow me down too much and aren't completely useless" - in this second case quest priority is a big deal). I decide which one it is going to be before I even prepare to go out.

[peternewman]

I think your second use case is my walking commuter one mentioned elsewhere @mnalis . As you say you may need to potentially de-prioritise/hide some complicated quests (e.g. opening hours), but in a typical grid based city you can take one of many routes to get from A to B with little difference in time, so you could pick up the quick quests on each different route each time.

[smichel17]

Use case: waiting for a friend in a restaurant/bar (originally by @peternewman in #1654 (comment))

High priority quests (incomplete list):

• dietary
• WiFi
• toilet
• disabled quests which are easier to answer indoors

[peternewman]

Some other possible quests.

Thinking about it, this use case can probably just be expanded to the indoor focused preset, as this use case would also work in a museum/shopping centre etc.

• This shop has been vacant (possibly)
• What is the name of this place
• Accept cash payments
• Pay to enter
• Defibrillator indoors
• Opening hours (low as not guaranteed from your table)
• "House" number (but lowest as not guaranteed)

[smichel17]

Use case: Passenger in a car

[mnalis]

Possible case: None really. While I've been at times able to map a very important note or two, it doesn't work for me. As a passenger in car, either I'm expected to provide navigation to the driver (so I'm dedicated to tuning and interpreting navigation app like OsmAnd), or driver knows very well where s/he is going and expect me to chat them up as they're bored, and not to obsess over my phone... Maybe others had more success there?

[smichel17]

I can think of a few specifics:

• Driving home after a family vacation. We've already spent lots of time together and don't need to fill every minute talking. However, this is largely highway driving and I have always had trouble actually answering quests. Occasionally I am able to answer things like building type (mainly water tank / warehouse) or road surface.

• Driving to a well-known location in New York City (Manhattan). Navigation is not needed because the location is well-known, but the traffic requires the driver's full attention. Also, the traffic makes driving slow enough to fill out quite a few more quests.

• In a taxi.

[peternewman]

Potentially with young children it could become the activity, think eye spy but for OSM/SC. In the UK we had these books:
https://www.waterstones.com/author/i-spy/3158077

Or the driver may be listening to music/taking a call etc.

I wonder if this is quite similar to the bus preset, although in some buses you may be on the top deck, so say roof type might be more suitable than looking into a shop, although there might not be much in it.

[georg-d]

In my experience, the use case is also often viable when

• chatting is not appropriate, e.g. other people in the car want/shall sleep, read,...
• the people in the car are randomly combined and do not enjoy [any more] chatting with each other, e.g. a shared ride (DE Mitfahrgelegenheit) of 4 hours often starts with a chat that often dies over time
• someone tells a story you know well to a 3rd person so you can follow the story and use SC for the next 5-10 minutes
• one row of the car is filled with only one person: chatting across rows is often not enjoyable due to background noise (high speed on motorway, wet or snowcovered street, horning cars in dense traffic,...) so it dies after some minutes. The "single" person is bored.

Quests I experienced to be well answerable from a car (sorry, I did not find a way to toggle SC from DE to EN)

• Existiert das hier noch?
• Welche Oberfläche hat dieser Straßenabschnitt / dieser Weg / der Fahrradweg / der Fußweg ?
• Wie viele Fahrstreifen für Autos hat diese Straße?
• Wie gut ist dieser Weg befestigt?
• Wie ist dieser Bahnübergang beschränkt?
• Was ist die Durchfahrtshöhe unter dieser Brücke?
• Was ist das Maximalgewicht hier?
• Haben die Bäume hier Nadeln oder Blätter?
• Welche Richtung führt auf dieser Treppe nach oben?
• Gibt es hier einen Radweg?
• Wie sind Radweg und Gehweg hier zueinander gelegen?
• Hat diese Straße einen Bürgersteig?
• Hat diese Bushaltestelle einen Unterstand / eine Bank / einen Mülleimer?
• Ist diese Bushaltestelle beleuchtet?
• Hat diese Bushaltestelle eine spezielle Pflasterung für Blinde auf beiden Seiten?
• Hat dieser Übergang eine spezielle Pflasterung für Blinde auf beiden Seiten?
• Welche Art von Fußgängerüberweg ist das?
• Gibt es bei diesem Fußgängerüberweg eine Verkehrsinsel?
• Ist es eingeschränkt, wer hier parken darf?
• Fallen hier Parkgebühren an?
• Ist der Motorradstellplatz überdacht?
• Welche Art von Parkplatz ist das?
• Aus welchem Material ist der Strommast?
• Was kann hier entsorgt werden?
• Possible where buildings can be told apart, e.g. because of low density: Wie viele Stockwerke hat dieses Gebäude? Welche grundlegende Dachform hat dieses Gebäude?

[smichel17]

Use case: On a train

[peternewman]

No, I'd disagree (apart from possibly a tram). Generally a train runs behind buildings whereas cars/bus generally run in front of them, so on a train I can't see the type of shop so say building height/roof type rather than name of shop etc.

I can't off-hand think of other scenarios between these two where the priority should vary but there may be some I've missed.

[mnalis]

@peternewman care to make a checkboxed list of what you think would be good train mapping profile?

[peternewman]

I'm going to suggest the things that should be demoted instead, i.e. the quests that may be harder to solve from a train, so in order of high to low priority (i.e. hardest to solve is last)

• AddBikeParkingCapacity
• AddBikeParkingFee
• AddDrinkingWater
• AddTactilePavingKerb
• AddKerbHeight
• AddInformationToTourism
• AddPlaceName
• AddBuildingType
• AddIsDefibrillatorIndoor
• AddAcceptsCash
• AddBikeParkingAccess
• AddAddressStreet
• AddHousenumber

I've probably missed some, but that's a starter.

[smichel17]

In #2565 (comment), @westnordost wrote,

I wonder how theoretical the use case of solving things in a train or in a bus really are. I remember trying to solve some quests on the train and I mostly failed. It just moves too fast for the download of the appropriate area to complete. I imagine it is very similar for a car.

I have tried some mapping on train and car before, and I agree with this. If I am mapping on a train, I would scroll around and download the data along the route before boarding.

[georg-d]

I do not see a use case for a train preset:

• For slow trains like local trains in India, the well solvable quests are IMHO very similar as for a local bus or tram, so IMHO it's not worth to maintain a dedicated train preset.
• For medium speed trains like regional trains in Europe running at 150km/h, the well solvable are IMHO very similar to a car on a highway, so IMHO it's not worth to maintain a dedicated train preset.
• For high speed trains like TGV usually running at around 300km/h except for e.g. areas in / nearby a station, using SC is IMHO not much fun/useful at all: Often, your view is rather limited because of a a noise protection wall/dam/embakment/.... thus you can't answer quests well. Moreover, it is demanding to get quests and opening one and observe the object quick enough.

[matkoniecz]

Use case: solving wheelchair quests (I was contacted by person who was interested in wheelchair mapping).

In this case moving up quests asking about wheelchair access would be necessary.

Additionally this quests would need to become enabled!

Also ramp and kerb height quest would be moved to top.

[valutcizen]

Yes, people on wheelchairs are more and more active community, and they are very interested in this kind of feature.

[peternewman]

Use case: Up high - when you're high up in a building, or on a hill or whatever.

Prioritise:

• AddRoofShape
• AddBuildingLevels
• CheckExistence
• AddCrossingType
• AddCrossingIsland
• AddBridgeStructure
• AddParkingType
• AddBikeParkingType
• AddBusStopShelter
• AddIsBuildingUnderground
• AddStepsIncline
• AddWayLit
• Then the lanes ones maybe

Probably others I've missed.

I did a few of these earlier with success (for the handful visible from my regularly visited building).

[rugk]

Use case: I'm a millennial (generation Y or whatever you may call it) and I feel advantageous. As such I don't like “boring” or time-consuming quests like house levels or so.
User story: I as a young person want to see/prioritize rare or special quests, because StreetComplete may otherwise bore me.

This may be a little biased, and I would not call the selection like that in the app, but it demonstrates one point of young people's user. Although I have to say I'm not sure/saying this is really a good use case and worth including in the app.
But for the sake of collecting it, it is at least sth. to consider.

I currently don't have a list, maybe only some to be disabled like all quests with houses or so. 🙈

[rugk]

Possibly another use case with the same result/that fits the same quests is the tourist one, i.e.

User story: I as a tourist (of a foreign place) want to see only special/interesting quests, as I don't want to loose time or energy on not so special quests/places.

Also to hide is probably the house number quest.

[HolgerJeromin]

Snow and ice:
Hide all surface quests.
Don't call it "winter". In north and middle Germany there is never snow for a longer time (looking out of the window ups :-)

ref #2562

[rugk]

Yes, good timing in big parts of Germany. The quests to hide are probably:

• Does this bus stop have tactile pavings?
• Does this crosswalk have tactile pavings on both sides?
• What kind of crossing is this?
• Does this pedestrian crossing have an island? (maybe only less priority)
• How many lanes for cars does this road have?
• What surface does the road […] have here?
• What surface does this path have here?
• What's the surface of the cycleway here?
• What's the surface of the footway here?
• What is the surface firmness of this track?
• Is there a cycleway here? What type?
• Does this street have a sidewalk?
• What surface does this sport field have?
• Does this bench have a backrest? (possibly, may be covered with snow, but may also not be covered)
• How many steps are here?

The quests regarding street signs (What is the speed limit for this street?) may also depriorized, because they may not always be visible and can be covered in snow.

[HolgerJeromin]

Filter for level:
I am in a building with many quests but I can only solve the ones in level 2.