January flew right by. I completed all the things on my January 2020 Roadmap so I’m in a good spot coming into February. Been doing some planning for next month today, and I think I know what Shmeppy nonsense I’ll be focusing on this coming month.
I’ll be getting into user-facing UI in February finally 
. I’m very excited to improve Shmeppy in tangible ways that all of ya’ll feel directly.
Analytics
This is the last of the immediate non-user-facing things I’ve gotta do. My analytics scripts are (sort of) busted, so I don’t have an accurate image of Shmeppy’s usage numbers. Further than that, my scripts have never been good enough to give me answers to some important questions.
I’ll be resolving these things first thing. And I’ll try to share some of my immediate findings re: Shmeppy’s usage with ya’ll since I’m sure they’ll be interesting.
Map & Connection Status
Ever been making changes to a map, only to refresh and see that they weren’t saved? Very frustrating, and happens too often.
Reporting when there’s unsaved changes will go a long way to preventing this situation. This is how google docs does it, and google docs and Shmeppy use the same underlying theory: Operational Transformation.
Token Sizing
This has been an often-requested feature, and it’s always been quite embarrassing that Shmeppy can’t do it. Let’s fix it .
Rework the Edge Tool to be Easier to Control
The edge tool’s UX is bad and I have a clear idea of how to improve it. Two changes will improve things dramatically (I hope):
- Make it so that the direction that the edge tool is snapped to (vertically or horizontally) is not locked in immediately (however the edge tool will continue to draw only straight lines, never staircase patterns).
- When deleting, show a “ghost edge” that clearly shows the “line of deletion” you’re drawing. Currently it’s fairly hard to see what’s happening when you’re deleting with the edge tool.
–
This is slightly more than I think I’ll be able to complete in February, but it’s right on the cusp of what I expect to accomplish, which seems ideal. I won’t have to figure out what the next best thing is if I accomplish more than I thought, and I’ve got a head start on what to do in March otherwise.
As always, please weigh in if you have thoughts about my prioritization.
I’m excited for this month . Happy Shmepping ya’ll.