Using Roastime4:
Likes(L):
L1 - roast curve lines are thinner, helps with precision
L2 - the main roast info is in one place for quick reference
L3- It seems easier to go fully GUI in controlling the roaster. BUT I still wish the Buttongs for Powerre and Fan were bigger, and easier to hit with the MOUSE without mistakes. Right now the ā+ā and ā-ā buttons are tiny. It feels like a volume slider you might use once in a while, not THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTROLS during a roast.s
Dislikes(D):
D1 - placement of the current batch info entry button. it is a feature that will be used every roast, and the button to enter the roast data for the current roast should be in the region with all the other commonly used controls.
D2 - default colors of the data are awful. Can barely see some of the lines. Could depend on the monitor. But not everyone has the same quality of monitor. Visibility is number 1. then make it look good if needed. Very important to have good default color scheme, because we are all constantly sharing information with eachother, and the less default options we use, the less effecient sharing is. The boss is a photographer and should understand color relationships and making things easier to see.
D3 - pop ups are still annoying and cover other GUI info. best to have a designated window for pop up information, so we donāt have to āXā out the pop ups everytime we do anything. After 10 roasts it gets to be annoying. Weāre already working like an octopus stirring the beans to cool, entering roast data, weighing roasted weight and bagging, all the while deciding an approach for that Kenyan coffee that is up next.
D4 - undecided about the new āsettingsā location. There is so much room on the side, that the settings icon was easily accesible, and it felt right. Now we have to jump over to the other side of the screen and go submenu drop down. It isnāt bad, but again, going for speed and simplicity when roasting. We donāt have time to aim perfectly to hit the drop down menu text. It is just not good UI design, and feels like it was changed ājust becauseā, or by a designer that doesnāt understand a working roaster workflow. We are not apple users, we are working. and we need the tool to be simple and effecient access to important items, not hide anything that is not sexy. I use the settings a lot, because you have to sometimes change the shape of the graphs by schangeing the time length, and this reveals differences between roasts. Please make the Settings a quick access tool again, at leas the chart settings option, so that i can quickly change how the graphs look, to see anomalies and trends in curves. - Also! many Mac users hide the top OS navigation bar, and everytime i mouse to settings, the hidden nav bar drops down and blocks me from getting to settings.
thanks!
Improvement suggestions(S):
S1 - āyellowingā is a very vague term, and I wonder how usfeul the information collected is? Best to define what Aillio considers āyellowingā. Some people call it āgreen to yellowā and mark the transition similar to FC, when a few beans begin to turn, and then cross referencing the temperature. This allows for more accurate yellow phase marking. This is criticallly crucial,
S2 - Charge temp of current batch. It can help to have the current roastās charge temp listed in the info. All of our times and targets are based on charge temp, so if we have to remember what it was for 1 or 2 batches, no problem, but 25th batch of the week? Going to start forgetting. Not all of us charge when the machine tells us to.
S3 - When mousing over the roast graph, that time and temp of where the mouse is show. Sometimes trying to guess what a temp is on the ghost curve when roasting, is difficult to tell. Or perhaps have the time/temp listed at power changes and landmarks like FC, if that would be easier.
