Pictorial control descriptions

[Ed]

Are there people who can manage the mental gymnastics of rotating arrows/dots straight onto the map?

Yes. Personally, I can never work out which is SE and SW but give me a circle and a dot and I know where to look.

[Paul Frost]

On the EckO website are items about an online control description quiz and also how to install the IOF symbol set as a font on your computer.

EckO are now using pictorial descriptions only for all events. Our experience is that children pick it up easily but adults with a bit of experience take a bit longer to re-learn.

[roadrunner]

Does anyone else have a similar problem with dots and arrows? Bottom right is top left when you're running South, but I always know where SE is on the map whatever direction I'm running

Of course, if you're using the control descriptions printed on the map, then the relative positions of the dot and the feature should match what you see and there's no need to worry about North and South - but how often can you fold the map so as to be able to do that?

[Gnitworp]

Almost never

Wipe that grin off your face, Roadrunner; this is a serious disability and sufferers need sympathy not ribaldry!

[Marco Polo]

No written descriptions were used for the YBT round at Bagworth (either loose or on the map) except for white and as far as I know only one adverse comment. It was suggested that more copies of Simon Errington's guide to symbols be available for people before the start to help people work out any symbols that they didn't know.

It would be useful to know if this caused any problems.

[Auntie Ange]

Why have Description Sheets at all?

The Control is in the middle of the circle on the map (exactly, spot on, with OCAD) and the marker is hung on the side opposite to the line of approach. So what more do you need? A list of Control Codes in case you can't read the map properly and need re-assurance that you're where you think you are?? Well OK then - but they're in Pictures not Words always, so no debate.

[Pete_Bog]

Why have Description Sheets at all?

The Control is in the middle of the circle on the map (exactly, spot on, with OCAD) and the marker is hung on the side opposite to the line of approach. Why have Description Sheets at all? The Control is in the middle of the circle on the map (exactly, spot on, with OCAD) and the marker is hung on the side opposite to the line of approach. So what more do you need?

Descriptions are essential to novices and helpful to the more experienced. Unfortunately I need them most on sprint events, when there is often no time to read them. In the real world, the control may not be quite in the middle of the circle and often the circle is not cut so that the description is vital to identify which knoll or thicket the control is behind!

A list of Control Codes in case you can't read the map properly and need re-assurance that you're where you think you are?? Well OK then - but they're in Pictures not Words always, so no debate.

Don't agree with this for the technical courses. Provided the 60m and 30m rules are properly controlled, the reassurance is only for those who have stumbled on the control rather than navigated to it, rather like I often do.

Back onto the topic, I have found that younger orienteers cope with pictorials better than written descriptions, the problems tend to occur with adult novices.

[RJ]

Now..... on a serious point..... there is a case to be made, that since control descriptions are printed onto the map with the course..... and the maps are almost always printed at the same time.... that we could show the proper symbol for the feature, or at least the correct colour for it. Show a boulder as a black dot rather than a black triangle. The brown dot can be used for the knoll. Squiggly fat brown line for a gully rather than a sharp extended and inverted V.

In an hour you could have the symbol set changed and ready for use. It would be so much more intuitive. The descriptions are only printed black or magenta/red for historical reasons and the shortcomings of single colour printing.

Time for a change.

[Oldman]

Agree with RJ - certainly worth looking at change (but would it ever get accepted as presumably the IOF would have to be persuaded?). I've never understood why a black circle on the map for a boulder becomes a triangle on the CDs, unless it's because knoll is already a circle. Similarly, as you point out, a gully has to have a whole new symbol - why not the one from the map?

[roadrunner]

...the marker is hung on the side opposite to the line of approach.

In an ideal world, perhaps, but most controls are shared by several courses, so I doubt it would always be possible for it to always be the opposite side to the line of approach. And there may be some cases where this would be undesirable anyway - how about a control on a high crag which you're approaching from below, would you really want it to be on top?

[HOCOLITE]

Bring on the digital map. you get a message saying your next control is number ...... and it is the middle 3' Crag Foot

[geomorph]

Agree with RJ - certainly worth looking at change (but would it ever get accepted as presumably the IOF would have to be persuaded?).

RJ - great idea.

Oldman - who says we have to conform to the IOF standard all the time. May even be able to use them at level 3 events: LOCAL format, and through groundswell of opinion force adoption globally

Well that endorsement's killed your idea dead, RJ

[RJ]

Anyone fancy producing a set of 'changed' symbols for OCAD8/9 using the various colours??

One consideration though..... because you are using the map colours you will have to have a dedicated space on the paper/map where the description list would sit. You won't be able to 'overprint' as you can when you use a white background and magenta/red 'top colour'.

However, this is'nt really a problem. Since the map is used as a background in the course planning file, you can produce a 'map' for each course with a section cut out, that is effectively just a white blank piece of paper. It is always a good idea to design your map so that you have a natural space for the descriptions anyway.... sometimes just taking the place of the legend.

[RJ]

Just had a look in OCAD9.... it is possible to create any number of extra colours. So you can have brown, blue, green, black and yellow 'top colours' so they will overprint on a white 'top' background.

But it is all doomed to failure because it is just the sort of change that needs to start at, at least, national level. No point in novices learning something in the NW that will be completely changed when they orienteer in EM!

There is no reason why we can't change though. Lobby technical group!!

[graeme]

There is no reason why we can't change though.

This is the best idea I've heard in a long time. Clearly better than what we have now.

Question is: can we do even better give the technology we have? I quite like the "purple dot in the circle" showing exactly where the flag is. But it can obscure details. Perhaps the control description could be a circle-sized map segment with the dot in place. This could save the fiddly job of cutting the circle to avoid obscuring detail. If it was at a larger scale, this could even help resolve the map scale problem, as its mainly in the circle where reading every detail is critical.