Feature improvement request - navigation with waypoints
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For me, waypoints are the most useful when doing long ultramarathon races. I really like to have all race checkpoints and aid stations marked as waypoints so that I track my progress.
Suunto does provide on-route waypoints but a fairly minimal level, it is far behind what is offered by Garmin and Coros.
I’d really like Suunto to match at least Coros level of implementation - see two screenshots that I copied from Coros website:
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Waypoints should be shown on the elevation profile. Also, it would be really helpful to be able to zoom and pan the elevation profile just like we can zoom and pan the map. There is already an ability to use the crown on the elevation profile to switch between the overall elevation profile and the climb guidance. Extending that to show several levels of zoom should not be a significant change. But seeing what kind of terrain is between the current position and the next aid station would significantly enhance navigation experience when doing a race.
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Next Waypoint screen should be automatically added when there is at least one waypoint on the route. For users that don’t care about waypoints, there would be no change in UX (no extra screens). As shown in the picture, it should display waypoint name, distance to it, and elevation gain to it. At the same time, I think, Suunto should remove special custom fields (like distance to next waypoint) that it introduced in Spartan models that provide the same functionality. The main problem with that is that these fields aren’t discoverable. For example, there is zero mention of these fields in online documentation (e.g. https://www.suunto.com/en-us/Support/Product-support/suunto_race/suunto_race/navigation/routes) and most users have no idea about them. Also, they require a custom sport mode and, once added, these fields take space on a data screen even when there is no navigation. Also, even with these custom fields there is still no way to see the next waypoint name. Suunto should admit that that it was a poor solution and implement a dedicated waypoint screen instead.
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@sky-runner I love that Coros implementation, it’s so sleek yet useful.
I second everything you’ve said here, they’re good ideas that are sorely missing from these watches, and are pretty important, especially given the rise in ultra running in recent years.
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@sky-runner I agree with 1 and some of 2 but keep programmable distance to next field. Coros just added that actually with direction symbol. It’s very useful for those of us that don’t like flipping screens during our activities. You can always create 2 custom sports modes, one with nav. and one without …
