Live Flight Tracking

Yuck. Glad it was not just me. I was actually doing a demo to show someone how cool FA was as we watched a low approach
and I was looking at the screen thinking Noooooooo!. But it was true. I asked my brother if it was
a bandwidth thing and he said probably. It that correct? Can we get the old way back for those that would choose?
Thanks!!

This only worked for a couple of days, then defaulted back to the new mobile design. errrrrr

Does anyone know if it going to be changed back?

This is honestly frustrating now. Trying to use the non-mobile version is a struggle within itself. I use flightaware daily as part of my social networking flow through my phone and this is definately not easy. It's ridiculous. I've always had a lot of respect for flightaware and now that this has been going on for about a week and nothing is being done except for the "helpful" go to the non-mobile version of flightaware hint, I don't know what to think anymore.

Last Sunday while spotting I used FA only once for 30 seconds. Clicked on IAD, saw 10 flights enroute and went to flytecomm. At flytecomm at least they have 'classic view'. Show you all the flights for the day. Before they had this classic view option, they drove away all of their customers away. Looks like flightaware went exactly in the same direction.

No word from FA yet. We all hope for the rollback.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. We're working hard to improve the mobile site, including the airport pages. Following up on a few specific items:



Where are you seeing the blue text on a black background? While the iPhone app has a black background, the web site shouldn't, unless it's rendering incorrectly.



Could you provide some examples of urls that are broken? The intent was to keep the former urls working. All aircraft pages should be unchanged.

One of the biggest problems for me, aside from the cute and pretty format (which may work great for grandma, but not for me) is the inability to go into the future to see upcoming filed flight schedules / plans.

Thankfully the FULL site works well on my iPhone and iPad so I am using that until they decide to use the same theme on the full on-lijne site (I sure hope not)

I don;t mind it if it was just a choice. I think the full iOS APP could also get an option for the old look. But, if there is going to be a choice, I rather the APP gets the new look and the Web version is left just like the old.

I am going to put up a few screenshots comparing the old and the new and why it is so inefficient (the new layout) while it is more pleasing to read (for some)

Cheers and thanks for listening.

Manny

P.S. Thanks to CL for pointing me to this thread...

I think the general consensus is that everyone was perfectly happy with the old version. There is nothing that you can do to "improve" the new mobile site other then just revert back. I think I speak for us all that we want a one page views all format like we had. Simplicity is best and simplicity is what you had.

I looked at the site on the phone again, this time indoors.
On the airport display, I see that the background is actually a dark blue.
Tapping on a flight, the background alternates between dark blue and black. Indoors, it is easy to see. Outdoors, in the sun, even with the screen shaded, it was not as easy to read.

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything: Yesterday I was using the site via my data plan. Today it was on my Wi-Fi. Could it be that using the data plan, with its slower connection speed, have something to do with the screen rendering?

Here are some comparison screens. From an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.1.1 on Wi-Fi (if it matters to anyone) but looks the same on 4G

The one thing I want to point out is simply how much more data fits on one screen at a glance on the old format. And no, we do NOT mind zooming in and scrolling I can easily target a column with a double tap and then smoothly scroll down on that column (on iOS at least) and on the iPad is even more readable...

I would NOT MIND at all the new look on the old layout format. What I mean is, the readability of the grid/tables could be improved by using alternating colors per line, and different background color choices etc. But I liked the layout very much. Actually this is the FULL site. The old mobile site was even better than the full site

Ok, the screenshots!

Overall airport. Note how you can see info right off the bat. On new layout, no such info. You have to PICK one first (arrivals/departures/en-route/scheduled)




40 flights on one page and there are MANY MANY more pages




Flight detail. ONE PAGE one screen, MUCH info




Gorgeous layout, but not very useful for me... a total of two flights displayed at a glance. Lots of scrolling and tapping




Finally, when you scroll to the bottom of the list... how do I go forward in time like before? Maybe I need a tutorial. Mind you, I didn't need one for the older mobile site





Do we really need a nearby function? I guess I am the only one who knows the airport I am flying in to or out of? No big deal, just wondering how useful the nearby function is...

Thanks everyone for your comments. We are listening, taking your input into account, and working hard to improve the site, including the airport pages.

Gonzalu, your first screen captures are of the full website version running on an iPhone so your comparison shots are invalid. We need screen shots of the last mobile version of flightaware. But anyways, I have just reverted to using the full web version on my iPhone for now.

I'm merging the two separate threads created to discuss the new mobile site; please look for existing threads before starting a new one.

It's helpful to us if you can tell us what you're doing (pilot, passenger, airport operator/FBO, airline employee, enthusiast, etc) and which specific pages you're using to do that (airport page, expanded boards [after clicking on More], fleet pages, etc).

An improved airport page with all 4 boards on it (instead of 1 click away) will be released this evening, with more improvements to follow.

Well, if you could FIND ME the old mobile version somewhere somehow to be able to screenshot, I would just use it :tongue: Seriously, your statement is stating the obvious. The reason we are here is because the old site is GONE!! So, I used the next best thing to illustrate. Actually, the old mobile site was very similar.. only main difference is the airport overview sections where you see the four areas for Arrivals/Departures/En-Route and Scheduled were basically stacked as opposed to a square.

Regardless, you get the point I think

THANK YOU to the administrators for at least listening. Some websites don't even have a forum where real users can openly and collaboratively discuss the best options for the end user! Kudos...

Manny

New Change!!

This is better. It now shows Arr/Dep/Sechd Dep/Sched Arr. all on one page.

Bug, KSBP is showing KSFO info for Sched Arr/Sched Dep. I doubt a 77W is coming into KSBP anytime soon...


Thanks,
Spinner

Looking much better. My only suggestion is putting the airport code inline with the airport name, but otherwise, it's great. m3Spinner, looks like the bug with the random flights is fixed now.

The flight's page looks like it could still use some improvement, but one step at a time Thanks for considering our feedback!

Thanks for pointing this out; this is fixed now.

Looking much better, thank you. I don't know if everyone else agrees with me but I would like to see scheduled and en route pages to be first on the list followed by arrived and departed. I like to have the more important info at the top.

Otherwise, nice improvement.

Excellent improvements. Thank you, Flightaware for listening to us. One thing I like though is the blue blips for the aircraft when you're on that airport's page.

So now the default page is full site. It wont resize to the screen, and every time you click on next 40 you have to resize it again. At least its not that horrible app.

If you choose the non-mobile site you should be served the non-mobile site on future visits, until you clear cookies on your device or choose to switch back to the mobile site. The desktop site experience depends a lot on your mobile browser, some handle it better than others.

Much better now!! Thank you. But what about seeing flights further in advance than just a handful. We use to be able to see much further in advance but now just about 1 hour ahead. That was very important as a plane spotter and enthusiast. Please fix this. Great work so far!

Ahh, true. I didn't even notice that, because I was only looking at small, local airports. I assumed that the En Route list would link to a full En Route list, but it only shows 30 minutes worth of upcoming arrivals. That's disappointing.

Yeah as a plane spotter that is very important! I've already missed some very exciting action due to this.