- Joined
- Nov 6, 2007
- Messages
- 12,838
- Location
- North Oxfordshire
- Car
- His - Denim Blue A220 AMG Line Premium / Hers - Obsidian Black R172 SLK55
The thread on map updates got me wondering how many fall into each camp?
I was an "early adopter" of sat-nav's at the beginning of the 2000's when an automotive Garmin device for use on a motorcycle would set you back the thick end of £600, had a tiny memory that meant you had to pre-load only the map segments you needed for a trip, took ages to recalculate and had a tiny screen. Most users - me included - adopted "Track Up" orientation as it made it easier to understand junction layouts and you didn't have the luxury of having a junction view either as a pop-up or split screen.
However the big problem with "Track Up" is that it's hard to know where you're being lead if there's a route recalculation or you've picked an erroneous destination (there are a disturbing number of duplicate place names in most of Europe) and blindly following the magenta line can lead you into a whole heap of trouble. So for quite a number of years now I've been using sat-nav's on motorcycles and in cars with a "North Up" orientation as it's much harder to find yourself heading somewhere you didn't intend. The split or pop-up view that displays junction detail still presents as "Track Up", so the mental gymnastics to work out which direction to turn are minimised and it's immediately obvious if I'm heading in the wrong direction.
I was an "early adopter" of sat-nav's at the beginning of the 2000's when an automotive Garmin device for use on a motorcycle would set you back the thick end of £600, had a tiny memory that meant you had to pre-load only the map segments you needed for a trip, took ages to recalculate and had a tiny screen. Most users - me included - adopted "Track Up" orientation as it made it easier to understand junction layouts and you didn't have the luxury of having a junction view either as a pop-up or split screen.
However the big problem with "Track Up" is that it's hard to know where you're being lead if there's a route recalculation or you've picked an erroneous destination (there are a disturbing number of duplicate place names in most of Europe) and blindly following the magenta line can lead you into a whole heap of trouble. So for quite a number of years now I've been using sat-nav's on motorcycles and in cars with a "North Up" orientation as it's much harder to find yourself heading somewhere you didn't intend. The split or pop-up view that displays junction detail still presents as "Track Up", so the mental gymnastics to work out which direction to turn are minimised and it's immediately obvious if I'm heading in the wrong direction.