As some of you may know, I am part of the Mobile Applications Development team at the Ordnance Survey.

We have put together a really quick questionnaire to gauge what people would be after in an OS App.

If you are an existing OS paper map user and/or use a mapping applications such as Google Maps or Strava, we would love to hear from you.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1958899/Ordnance-Survey-Applications

I’ve been promised it’ll only take 5 minutes. I’m not allowed to fill it out myself so I can’t validate that. If there is any feedback on the survey itself (IE: This question is silly) then let me know and I can pass on anything said here.

Cheers guys.

Disclaimer: Whilst I am an employee of the OS and we are super keen to get your feedback, I am not really posting this in an “official capacity” – that is to say, I won’t be answering any questions as such – we have a customer service dept. for that with all the proper information should anyone need anything 🙂

Q6 could do with something to differentiate if you like/dislike the comment you’re making.

Its clear you plan to charge for this, but theres no question around how much customers would be willing to pay.

Cool, thanks -i’ll ping that back. Thats for taking the time.

Its a bit of a pain to be asked early on which features are important to you, but then still be repeatedly asked to rank/comment on the features which aren’t important to you.

Although I appreciate its probably not easy for the survey to dynamically adjust later questions based on earlier answers.

Like viewranger. But with free offline maps….

Done. All I really want is offline maps for Windows Phone please 🙂

Thanks guys. We really appreciate it.

If I buy maps on the mobile version, I also want to be able to use them on my Mac.

Rachel (may have tweeted this before…)

It didn’t like this
If that’s not the case why doesn’t it suggest 1 x £1 to 10 x £1 rather than 10 x £1 , 1 x £10 in the instructions?? or am I being thick? (just a bit confusing I think, changing the units of your answer in the question)

Like viewranger. But with free offline maps

So viewranger then. Lots of free map options, just OS you have to pay for. The ‘downloading’ of free maps for offline use could be better but I guess if you make it too easy then people don’t buy the paid maps

I though the guy the wrote MMTracker, the app that got closed down by OS, then went to work for OS to help them write their own app. Is that true?

I find what you’re doing really interesting but I gave up on the second page. Any surveys that have lists of things to rank need to keep those lists shorter than you have on this survey. Maybe others will have more patience than me 🙂

Survey done- I thought question about what you would “traditionally” expect an OS product to do was a bit odd, as traditionally I’d expect it to work offline but get soggy in the rain 😉

Interesting questions (easy to complete questions don’t always get the most useful results!) – looking forward to what it feeds into.

what jonathan said re: “traditional”

scrap question 4. it’s annoying to have to zoom out and drag things about, and not being able to carry on until you’ve dragged them all across.

Question 5 does exactly the same job but better.

(although maybe giving you £20 would allow a bit more fine tuning – maybe that’s not useful, though.

and I gave up at 6 – not enough time to give decent responses – small book possible about pros and cons of different apps/sites. On the balance between wanting to give decent feedback, but requires a decent bit if time to do it – starts to feel a bit like work.

All good stuff. Cheers guys.

Done and Good Luck.

I love maps and have a Getamap subscription plus lots of paper maps which I use all the time and which are mementos too. Have a few custom maps and have given these as gifts too.

I downloaded the OS iOS app, very nice but no free maps. Outside has free maps, how can the OS product be worse (1:50 free, 1:25 you pay – how hard is that ?). As a result I just deleted it. If there was a subscription service which allowed me to download tiles as I needed them that would be great. As it stands they are far too expensive. I’d much rather print from OSGetamap or have a paper map than pay these ridiculous tile prices, also if you are out in the “back country” you need a paper map anyway, you’d be daft to rely on a phone.

I use Endomondo for tracking and live mapping, useful to figure where you are roughly and how to get home/where you want to go if a bit lost. Add OS maps and it would be perfect. I use ViewRanger for routes and viewing and also very good for street mapping at home and abroad, its all free.

done. Who do we post poo-filled envelopes to for choosing silverlight for getamap by the way?

Sadly OS maps are far too expensive… shame as I love all the paper ones I have collected over the years…

Sorted. Will be very interested to see what comes of it.

Sadly OS maps are far too expensive… shame as I love all the paper ones I have collected over the years…

They are a tool not a heirloom 🙂

Done, as above with the comments, I really struggled to understand the intent behind some of the questions. Good luck as it would be really good to see an app, especially if content is available off line as not all of us live in areas of the new fangled 3 or4G.

Done. I’d be interested in a decent OS map app, and I’d pay for it, but only if the data was priced sensibly. And not allowing offline access would kill it stone dead for most users.

I do feel that if I buy a paper map, I shoulddnt have to buy digital access to the same area as well

Also I shouldn’t have to buy a tile (on the current app) in different resolutions/scales, if I buy a map to x area I should be able to see it in everything from 1:1250 up (or at least 10k)

Finally, and this really, really puts me off OS digital services, there really in no justification for the price per tile being as high as the paper version.

Thank you everyone, interested in seeing the results. As per the OP I can’t respond to anything specific, but it is all very exciting.

Cheers!

I don’t mind paying for the work you’re doing to make the OS data available on mobile devices, ie I’ll pay for an App. But I object to paying for the data when it was paid for out of taxation in the first place.

The poster above is entirely right, owning a physical map (not just buying a new one now) should give access to that data in any format and at any scale as a bare minimum.

Got to page three and gave up, sorry.
Very happy with Back Country Navigator app, £7.99 to buy and you get OS maps for the whole of the UK to use on or offline for free.

Done, but nearly gave up on first question. What does “traditionally” mean in this context? I thought it meant paper maps, but the offline question says it doesn’t – so I just answered as best I could but if the questions are meaningless the answers are likely to be.

It asks effectively the same question 5 times!

On the drag to rank, it doesn’t say you need to rank 5 items, just gives an error if you don’t – which is annoying. My fifth ranking was random.

Asking about which other apps I use, it assumes I only use one.

As other posters have said, offline access is essential. I can’t believe anyone would even ask the question. Most of the places I need to use maps, there’s no signal.

Not covered in the questions; I don’t want to pay multiple times for the same data just because I’m using a different app, but I WOULD pay (but not the full price) to update my licence to the latest data set.

Will do it but it’s a rubbish survey – too much repetition.

What I want, and what would surely work really well for OS, is the ability to purchase OS Map tiles/data and plug it in to any mapping/tracking app/platform that I use. So you could have an API that Strave or MapMyRide or whatever could connect to, so I could view my data in those platforms and overlay it on top of my OS Map tiles. I would also want to be able to download those maps for offline use, so like make up a route on MapMyRide and ‘send to phone’ so I could track the route on my phone and view the OS Maps when I need to.

This would be perfect… OS focus on what they’re good at; mapping. They expose their product to the widest audience and let that audience choose whatever platform suits them. The other app developers aren’t competition for OS, they are partners. The user licenses the OS map data and they should be able to choose what they can do with it.

I want an unlimited OS subscription, and for the maps to be available cross platform, ie Garmin and Strava through my single OS subscription. Similar to how I can use Paypal in lots of on-line stores and watch Netflix across many devices. Why should OS burden themselves with App development and maintenance? They map, stick to what you know, sensible collaborations and cross platform access will see you “moving with the times” for minimal effort. I think you’ll see more people subscribe and device manufacturers will probably profit and thank you also…….after paying you huge amounts for their corporate subscription 8)

Beat me Stooo!

Great minds … Kev

Done.

I gave up after q2! “They” seem to have assumed that I “traditionally expect” Ordnance Survey to provide electronic functionality. I don’t. I can’t believe “OS” think this, so presume the questionnaire was made by the “OS digital team” and the feature set they’ve listed is what they think I want. I’ve been involved in designing a lot of apps and this is a back to front approach. As a map user and “technologist” I’ll happily help OS design a suite of features that are genuinely of value but not in a questionnaire which can only ever lead you to a “controlled answer”.

For the record – here are the features of OS mapping that *I* believe people value:
– accuracy
– legibility
– coverage
– level of detail (ie. different map scales for different “tasks”)

In terms of printed maps the format / size is popular (although may not be ideal for all users!). The cost is just OK but generally perceived as expensive. I’m not sure how cost effective (or profitable) your custom map printing is – but one major irritation for anyone is having to cover multiple maps – if it makes business sense there is a major opportunity, and if those are easily highlighted to show intended routes etc all the better. Offering different print sizes would also stop me carrying a huge map that I only use an A3 portion of.

You are not strava, garmin or endomondo etc so don’t try to compete with an installed user base for planning, logging and sharing routes: look at how you can compliment their offerings (via APIs?) where your strengths add value to their products and vice versa.

You are also not google so I’m not sure your “POI”, “Events” etc can be as up-to-date or meaningful/content rich as theirs. Why reinvent the wheel and DON’T dare clutter my lovely map with crap I’ve not asked for or interested in!

The features I want on my phone are not the same as I want on my desktop.

Your value lies in your dataset – controversially, I’m not sure (and I don’t have the information I would need to support this decision) that it makes sense for OS to develop apps of its own. Every electronic offering you’ve tried in the past has been a bit “meh”. You can’t be all things to all people, and even walkers and cyclists have different needs. If I was on the OS board I would be questioning whether OS would not be better off developing (and simplifying) its licensing model [and possibly its APIs, support infrastructure, security and architecture as necessary] to facilitate “any” developer fully utilising the potential value my 4 listed points OS mapping brings to any mapping App (web/desktop or mobile) rather than thinking we could invent our own “ultimate map app”.

Poly you should apply for a product management job at OS 🙂

I applaud the fact that some areas of OS are attempting to reach out to customers to find out what they value. Historically this hasnt been the case….

DT78 – I doubt they can afford me 😉

I applaud the fact that some areas of OS are attempting to reach out to customers to find out what they value.

mmm… or [cynic] some internal process insists they do it – the questions suggest the features, if not their priorities are predecided[/cyncic]

anyone else had an invite to beta test the new OS mapping app having completed the survey?

Yes, yesty – replied to it but not been sent the link yet.

As above.

me too

Got a beta test email too.