First, it is the best app I have tried so far, it is well thought through, designed and it is user friendly so well done! The relational structure, the dropdown boxes, the ability to take pics and voice notes, the ability to import, export and have photos labelled is brilliant!


Here are a few comments. I included in brackets the OS they refer to.
Application control buttons (top right and left corner of screen)
- These are very small and hard to hit with fat fingers or when using a tablet with a case. Could they be wider rectangles rather than tiny circles?
Linked tables.
- When clicking on linked field, it takes a long time to open the linked table and register the link. (Windows)
- If editing the linked table record from the other table, it does the edit but does not come back to the record you were editing. Worst, it has not saved it so any data you may have inputted has been lost. (Windows and Android)
Inputting data:
- you can't add a new record from the table view (the add record button is not there), you have to click on an existing record and then add a new one (Windows)
- drop down boxes are quite slow to open and record information (Windows).
- The scrolling siezes at times and can be unresponsive (Windows)
- When editing or adding a new record, all fields have icons for photos and voice recording. (Windows and Android).
- - Also, if I click on the voice note icon it comes up with an error message (Windows).
- If I record successfully a message or take a picture in Android and then export as a csv file, I can't find the recording or the photo or even a link to them in the csv file and folder.
- there is no input validation to check that a field has been filled in or not. That is very important as it is all too easy to miss important fields during survey. The function needed is the equivalent of a 'required' option in other databases. If ticked, the field must be filled in otherwise the record cannot be saved and a message appears.
- In Android phones, the field boxes take up the whole screen and are on different lines than their labels.(Android phone)
Photos
- Somehow the quality of the photos is quite poor (Windows).
- very slow photo taking and registering and saving (Windows).
- Not quick to switch between portrait and landscape (Windows).
Database
- When clicking import, it opens a window and only the top 3 folders are visible (you have to scroll down to see the rest). It is strange as the rest of the window is empty.
Derived fields
- This is a very important and useful feature as it enables data derivation but also validation (you can create a QA form to quality check data entry, compare field entries, their consistency etc.).
- Unfortunately, apart from very simple stuff such as creating a 'if site_number = 3' statement, I could not figure out how this worked. I tried to do checks on text strings (e.g. 'if Text = "yes" then ...') but it does not seem to support it. I tried the choice option and could not figure out how it worked. The help file gave no illustrated examples and not a lot of information.
- I could not figure out how the + and - buttons worked and what they were for. They add lines but linked to what?
- I am not sure the prefix notation is very helpful. It goes against standard practice for writing logical statements. It definitely needs to be better explained.
Suggestions
- Could there be an option for fields such as 'Field required?' which would enforce a check that the field has data in it before saving and would ask the user to input data if he has forgotten?
- Could there be an autonumber field that grows incrementally and can be used as a unique id field by the user?
- Clearer instructions on how to create derived fields with a lot of visual examples.
- Derived fields that can be created using 'if then else' statements or more standard syntax.
Altogether the app worked much better with Android than Windows OS. With Android, the app was more responsive, quicker and gave access to the full camera app when taking pictures.
Many thanks
