New RV Park Reviews mobile app!

We're excited to announce that RVPR has a brand new, just released, FREE mobile app available for download. We hope that you'll give it a try and post some feedback here so that we can continue to evolve the app.

As you are probably aware, there is a mobile view of the regular site that displays automatically on devices with small screen but functionality is somewhat limited. We're hopeful that the new app will address some of these issues and make it a lot easier to post reviews and photos from your favorite parks.

This is an early release and we still have some details to work out but would like to enlist your help with the process. If you are a mobile user we would greatly appreciate feedback and input on this thread. If you like the app please give it a push at the app store with a nice rating, if you have suggestions for improvement, please post them here so that we can address them rather than at the app store (the forum is much better for detailed comments).

Here are the links in the appstores:

IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rv-park-campground-reviews/id1139925131?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socialknowledge.rvparkreviews

Here are some of the issues that we are already addressing with the next release:

1. When exiting the park summary screen, the map refreshes. This refresh will be disabled to speed up browsing.
2. The map shifts as you look at the park summary screen
3. Default around a location will be changed to 25 mile radius
4. Filtering doesn't always work. Sometimes, you need to filter twice to get map to be displayed.
5. Park labels shift.
6. When reading reviews not all review data displays and so we will be adding a 'view more' link on reviews

Give it a try and let us know what you think

 

A couple of quick items I've already noticed for the Android version:

1. The map display that appears when you start the app shows nearby parks but doesn't have your own location marked; very important that gets fixed if you're in an area you aren't familiar with.

2. The "search by city and state" doesn't work, or it sure doesn't work the way I would expect it. I entered USA in the country, Houston in the city, and Texas in the State and touched the (very small and unmarked) checkmark which acted like it was doing something but the map displayed a single park somewhere in TX that sure wasn't Houston.

3. I'm not sure what the purpose of the "search all parks" button is except to give me back a map with a ridiculous number of parks shown. How is this "searching all parks"?

4. If I touch the marker for a park on the map the name of the park is displayed, but there ought to be an ability to do something like touch and hold to have the system take the user directly to the listing for that park; as things are at present you have to read the name and manually enter it.

I do like the format for displaying the reviews of a particular park, but I question what's the point of showing the distribution of reviews by type of RV? All that tells me is that people who went there owned a variety of RV types. It would be much more revealing if the distribution of ratings by type of RV was shown on the bars. For example, are the people who were there in MH's more likely to give low ratings? Why? Maybe the sites are too small?

Sorry to sound sort of negative, but telling you everything was great wouldn't help you. It is a great first step.

Joel

 

Joel,

Thanks for the feedback, we're working on getting some of the different nuances of the app fixed. It's gone through a few iterations to get it to the point where we felt it was worthy of being used. The app isn't perfect but I hope people do find it useful. For example, uploading a picture is really easy to do and I imagine will make it far easier for people to do as they are at the park. The flip side requires people to download the image to a computer and then upload it -- that takes a lot of time / hassle and isn't the easiest for everyone to do.

"4. If I touch the marker for a park on the map the name of the park is displayed, but there ought to be an ability to do something like touch and hold to have the system take the user directly to the listing for that park; as things are at present you have to read the name and manually enter it."

When you touch the park, you see a park summary at the bottom. From there you can, touch anywhere in the summary and go to the park detail page. It does take one extra tap, but I think this is what you're trying to do??

 

Loaded the new app on my Android smartphone, and so far I'd say it's off to a really good start! I agree with Joel that the opening screen does need a "You are here" marker. A little tighter view, or maybe a default distance setting choice in the options, would help as well for that screen, especially in areas with lots of parks. I look forward to the ongoing improvements, and thanks for considering our input!

 

Thanks for the feedback. Currently location marker is a good idea. We already discussed making the default view a little closer. I don't see those being hard to get done (famous last words!)

The filter page is a mess and will be worked on considerably in an upcoming release.

We are working towards running the website and the apps from the same API. The long term goal is that we make a change on the site it will also be exactly the same on the app. Right now it's pretty much doing that but they are working from two different code bases. It's going to take a while as we have to prioritize our development efforts. At the moment, the primary developer tasked with this is working to merge the RV Trip Wizard database with RV Park Reviews. This way the trip planning tool will also run off of our master database/API. It's a pretty big project without much consumer facing updates so please be patient. I feel very confident that when we look back at this time next year we will be in a much better position when it comes to our backend systems with a more comprehensive database of information about the parks.

I suspect a handful of iterations on the app and it's going to be nicely refined. Once we feel comfortable we will start to promote it to our members. Specifically we want to encourage photos of the campgrounds which are much easier to provide via the app vs a computer. We'll need to monitor review quality from the apps as people might want to type less on small devices. If so, that's why we have all the new fields. It should be an interesting new chapter for our community!

 

I think making the default opening map view a bit tighter and adding "+", "-" buttons for zooming in and out might work well.

 

Many phone apps don't use "+" or "-" buttons because you can zoom with your fingers.

 

The key word being "many", but not "all". Mine can finger zoom, and I expect yours too, but I have seen phones and tablets that don't. And tapping a "+" or "-" can be more precise, particularly on smaller screens. It's pretty simple in Java based app coding, at least on Android, so why not include it for those that need or prefer it?

 

On the next version of the app, it will default to a 25 mile radius. There is a + / - button already on the map??

 

You're right, Janet, it is there! It wasn't showing up at the screen resolution I had set at the time for another app, but at the default setting it's definitely there. Thanks for making me look again!

 

Great start! I was hoping for an app! More feedback later.

 

Folks there should be an update available in the next day - keep the feedback coming we appreciate it

 

OK, some early observations on the IOS version. The filter doesn't seem to do anything. Some reviews are truncated without any obvious way to show the whole review. I tried to post a picture by taking it directly into the app. Took the picture, added caption, no other button seemed to work, clicked off of the picture and it went away. I don't think it uploaded, but don't know for sure. I am not able to see my reviews.

This next one is big. There is no way to filter for type of campground such as State Parks, National Parks, Forest Service campgrounds, etc. However, I don't think you collect this information, a big negative.

It would be great if this could be integrated into the Allstays app, my go to app to use along with this site.

Thanks for providing the information.

 

Jim,
Thank you for your feedback!

1) With regards to the filter, it does work, however, it's really wonky. We know it's an issue and its on the list of items to be fixed. FYI - if you really want to filter and you do it twice, you'll see the map/filter shows the second time. (We're getting this fixed though so stay tuned).
2) The picture uploading should have worked. Did you tap on Submit? Do you mind trying again?
3) Were you logged in when trying to see your reviews?
4) Filtering by campground type will come in the future.

A new version of the app was submitted to the App Store earlier today. It will be out for iOS users when Apple approves it (can be 1 day to over a week). This new version is already in the Google Play store. While v1.0.1 doesn't contain all the fixes it does contain many different enhancements/bug fixes. We will continue to release new versions of the app with enhancements and bug fixes.

 

Yay!! Thanks for the ios App

 

All I'm seeing in the Google Play store is 0.1.2 which was posted on 8/2/2016

 

Can you check again? I have 1.0.1 installed for me. Also, the following link shows 1.0.1 is the latest:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socialknowledge.rvparkreviews&hl=en

 

I was logged in when l tried to look at my reviews. I tried it again. It goes to a blank screen. I tried the picture upload again. I am on an iPad. I say upload pic, take picture, picture shows up, add caption. At the top it says "upload" but it is not an active link, no submit, nothing to click. Click off of the picture, it sinks to the bottom, bummer. I was unable to get it to work.

Jim

 

Now Google Play shows 1.0.1 (8/11/16) which wasn't the case previously and my display now shows "you are here". So my phone has updated itself.

 

Jim
With regards to uploading a picture, I believe I understand what is going on. On an iPad you ne d to tap on the minimize keyboard button on the bottom right corner. When you do that you will see the upload button. Obviously this isn't user friendly and we will need to update that to make it work better on a tablet form factor. At least you should be able to upload pictures in the interim.

I need to check on your reviews as far as why they aren't showing.

Thanks again for your feedback. We will get this app working well with help from people like you.