Hey! So the solution I've got in place was actually kind of a compromise solution originally. I had it jump right in at first and people asked to disable autoplay, so I tried completely shutting it off and a lot of people missed that you could run the path altogether. Settled on this 5 second timer, but I think some kind of option to disable it is a good idea. I'll work on adding that in. If you'd like, you can submit it that or other suggestions as an issue here: https://github.com/sdl60660/river-runner

What is the general guidance on hinting to users that they should use a feature? It's always a shame when you design something really cool, and users miss it.

I think you are kind of right on this, for me the “really cool thing” is seeing the routs not the fly through. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the same for most people. I think it’s one of those cases (which I have done myself, multiple times) when you build something and you think the best thing is this clever thing you built, and you love it, but actually the basic functionality is the “cool bit” most people want.

If it were me I would not have an auto play at all but a really big fat arrow pointing at the play button saying “this fly though is really cool”. Might not seem “professional”, but it works from experience.

Ha, I don't want to tell you you're wrong, but having heard from a lot of people on this, I'm not sure this is right. The vast majority of people I hear from seem as or more interested in the flyover than the routing itself. And that's why I have to strike a balance here.

I agree that I mostly want to see which rivers the drop flows to but really enjoyed the flight down the Savannah river and seeing how winding it is. Spent a week canoeing it a long time ago.

Ha ha, yep. Us creative types do like to have our opinions about what other people build.

Love it BTW!

I like how Materialize CSS implements feature discovery: https://materializecss.com/feature-discovery.html

Generally, I've found that if it's active at all (requires a click, reading something, opting-in etc) the vast majority of people will miss it.

Two ideas: (a) if you click during the timer, it resets the timer and re-plots wherever you clicked. (b) escape key cancels the timer.

(b) should take a few minutes to implement, and would be a big quality of life boost.

Just implemented suggestion (b), sorry for the delay on that. I'm not sure about (a) yet, but will definitely at least add an option to disable autoplay and will consider that.

Fwiw on chrome on Android there does not appear to be a timer or delay - fly-by is Instantaneous... Not a biggie just fyi :)

Holy crap the autoplay thing is annoying. Please disable it. Or at least make esc cancel it.

Same, found that I had to click the "X" next to the pause before the autoplay kicks in (you have like 5s). Then you can click another right away.

There's no such X on mobile :(

Wow, yeah the experience is much worse on mobile. You have to wait for it to zoom in, press X, wait for it to zoom out, press X again.

Designing for mobile is hard! I'm sorry! Really limited space to work in controls without covering for too much of the map