Saturday was a very busy day. We started early with the first test of the day. The second test of the application went better than the first. With some of the changes I made, it was easier to get the players onto the field. I'm still annoyed with the screen scroll when a roster is too large. I've shrunk the names as much as I can and it still be usable. I've got to come up with another way. Also this is iPad only ATM and other tablets it may be worse. I've got someone with an Android tablet that wants to help test so maybe that will help answer that question.
Feature Request #1 - Come up with way to stop the scroll.
During the first game, I had no issues and everything worked really well. It also helped knowing the players names a bit better. Some things to consider is that currently it takes 2 entries to record a Face Off Won. As you know, that is the fastest part of the game so often the steps were, record Face off Attempt, record Face off Won, and record who picked up the ground ball. If there was an assist and a score there, that would be a tough stretch to keep up with. Similar issue with a goal. Often there was an assist, shot on goal, and then a goal. Currently I haven't been counting a Goal as a shot on goal although I should. I can either calculate that post action, or build it in. Not sure which way to go just yet.
Feature Request #2 - Determine better way to record Face Off process.
Feature Request #3 - Determine better way to record Goals/SOG's/Assists.
Although I separated Clears from the individual stats and put it on the field as a team stat. Recoding it had no feedback. It was a direct record to the database and as such didn't notify the user that it had done its work. Perhaps I need some indicator that a Clear did happen.
Feature Request #4 - User Feedback for Clears
Still the biggest problem I had was on line swaps. Getting 3 new players on the field, especially during a score and then a face off opportunity was too slow. At least twice I had missed a middie (fortunately he didn't do anything during that time). What I need to have is the concept of lines, just like the teams have. That way I can activate a line and it would still give me the flexibility to rotate individuals in and out.
Feature Request #5 - Create Position "Lines"
At the end of the game, the statistics were quickly and easily calculated and put into my nice new tabular format. I had left a spot for Penalties, but I can't easily integrate them into the table, and because they won't be calculated by type, don't fit anyway. I'm going to remove that from the table and do a secondary report for the team as a whole where I report penalties. I need a team report anyway, so this works out well.
Feature Request #6 - Team report, calculate totals for all, report on clears and man up/down opportunities, Team Goals, Team Turnovers, and Penalties.
I was asked to do a second game for a different team and I was happy to oblige since this gave me more data. Fortunately I did know a lot of the Player by name already as they practice with my son, and/or have played on his team in the past. Still, it was much harder to keep up with than it was during the first game, just because of my lack of knowledge for the boys. One bug surfaced. Although it was recording the scores correctly, on the field screen, it had the home and away as the same team. Not sure why this occurred as I wasn't able to reproduce on the spot.
Defect - Away team on both sides of the scoreboard.
Last week I stood with the parents to take the stats which helped greatly when I was struggling with names, etc. This week I stood with the boys. Once they figured out what I was doing, I was having to answer the same question every 5 minutes "what are my stats?" After learning my lesson, my answer became, "I can't get that until the end of the game", but the truth is that I can refresh the report as the game goes on, which was a nice way for me to validate that the program was working as intended. It also helped to validate that the real time push to Facebook that I want to integrate will work nicely.
Now with 2 games under our belt for my son's team, Parents are now getting interested in seeing the stats. This week's number one priority is to complete the Facebook login integration and to get "Following" working properly. If it is anything like the Google Maps integration, it shouldn't take more than a day to get implemented.
That's my thoughts for now. As always if you have any suggestions for the application, I'm very grateful to hear them.
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