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Recommendations for next version of Usage Meter

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MarkJFine
Professor

Recommendations for next version of Usage Meter

After going through the process of seeing where data leaks are, I started to realize that the Usage Meter could be a great tool to figure out what's going on. The problem is was that the data as provided wasn't really resolute for something like that. So I came up with some ideas of how to fix that:

 

1. More digits: May be my personal preference, but showing the data in terms of MB (like Account/Usage on the web site does) is a lot more helpful than in GB with one decimal place. That will give you only 100MB resolution. Also prefer percents showing to 1 or 2 decimal points depending upon how it tends to vary. In this case using 1 decimal places for the percent usage and 2 decimal places for remaining time (which I added, btw).

 

2. More data: Again, personal preference, but it's a lot easier if you don't have to math in your head. So, I added a remaining data to the donuts. I also added back the progress bars, with markers showing where you should be (on average) as well as how under (or over) you are. This was always the best way to see if you were burning data too fast or too slow. It also gave you a way to generally plan and manage things better. I also added (as stated) a percentage to the time remaining. If the progress bars never come back, this at least gives you an indication of how you're burning wrt to the percents in the donuts.

 

Here's a mock-up of the Mac version:

Usage Meter.png

Yeah, it's kind of geeky, but I thought I'd share. Haven't spent much time on the Usage History graph, but have some general ideas for that as well.

 

Comments?


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.
54 REPLIES 54
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

It would be nice if the Usage Meter broke down the data a bit more like the site does, but even more so I would like to see the bar graph showing the percentages of the data used and what's left like it used to show.  Why they got rid of the latter I simply cannot fathom.    

Hi Mark!

 

These are great suggestions, I love the mockup! Thank you for taking the time to create and share with us. I've e-mailed your feedback to our developers for consideration, thank you again!

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

@GabeUHeh... the code for the progress bar is actually still there, they just commented out the call to it.

 

@LizThanks Liz. That was actually a working mock-up from v6.6.1 with a few html, stylesheet and javascript modifications. Had to make new bubble images for the progress bar tho. Hopefully nobody minds and I certainly can provide a tarball of the mods if the developers want it.

 

What's really good about this is it allows me to check overall usage in great detail without actually adding any usage via the web site or iOS app.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Hey Gabe, I'm still running version 6.2.0.  I take it 6.6.1 still does not include the wonderful Anytime data cycle usage/Data used bar .  I really depend on this to watch my data. So I guess I won't update like I was thinking ofdoing!

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@farmerhugh

 

No, 6.6.1 still doesn't have it.  I was hoping that they would put it back with the 6.6.1 release, but they either had it too far along in its design by the time I started the thread requesting that they add back the progress bar, or they don't really have plans to put it back.  I imagine, at least with 6.6.1, it's the former (or at least I'm hoping it is).  I really hope they put it back in the next one.

 

The last version that contained it was 6.5.3.  If one doesn't mind the popup, and, if they have Gen5, they don't mind not having the Video Data Saver adjustment on the meter, version 6.5.3 is fine.

 

With that said, I temporarily installed 6.2.0  so I could take the snapshot to show them the progress bar that I, and many people, would like to see back, but evidently it doesn't work with Gen5, or at least I couldn't get it to work.  It installed and opened, but it wouldn't show anything.  I uninstalled it and tried it again, but still nothing.  So I ended up using 6.5.3 for the picture.  I then reinstalled 6.6.1, mostly because of the annoyance of the update popup.  I always keep the Video Data Saver on, and I can adjust it by signing in if I need to, but that update reminder popup just became too annoying again.  🙂     

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

GabeU... the code for it is apparently still present, it's just commented out, and I want to say some of the images used in the past was also present but removed in 6.6.1.

@MarkJFine Could you PM a link to the files to me so I can take a peak at them and compare the differences between your modifications and the official release from Hughesnet?


EDIT: So, I played with it a bit, a direct copy/paste of the files works good... Overall I like it, but it does feel a bit crunched.  Maybe remove the Megabytes in your plan, as that isn't really needed with the other two fields of information being available...

MarkMods.PNG

@C0RR0SIVE

I agree with the plan available stuff as it tends to make it look cramped. I only left it in MB for completeness, but didn't want to leave it out completely. Perhaps changing it to GB, as you say, but adding it to the section title in a lighter gray in the same way as the plan dates are shown for the DATA CYCLE USAGE below, like:
I SERVICE PLAN DATA - 30 GB, and

I BONUS ZONE - 50 GB

That would certainly lighten things up and keep all the plan data consistent.

 

Have you found the part where the plan dates jump around like the old one used to? Think theres a bug in the way they establish the date ranges. Found part of it when I was calculating minutes remaining and it was a day short.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Something like...

this:
Untitled.png

I also dropped the font size on the bubbles from 12 to 11 so they wouldn't wrap so easily.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

More recommendations:

1. The bubbles in the progress bar should be filled with the window background, so they don't make a mess when they overlap:
usage.jpg

yeah... I finished downloading Assassin's Creed III from XBL this morning using ethernet cable... think it averaged close to 60Mbps, but that's another thread entirely.

 

2. the usage history does some really weird thing where it caches all of the data one time during the day, and stays that way. Even worse is if you display it right after midnight, it caches the entire day with no data... that's a bad thing. Might be a good idea to use the data from the Usage Meter to dynamically update today's totals in the Usage History... as such:

history1.jpg

(I had to redo this one so the amount is less, where the 9MB went I have no idea).

 

3. It would also be nice to put the daily usage back too:

history2.jpg

This way you can see where things go out of whack, like when I downloaded the rest of ACIII this morning. Also, rather than splitting the daily data in terms of download and upload, which is not real helpful, you can use the deltas from the arrays in the first chart to derive this. There's a trap in doing that, because people change plans in the middle of cycles, etc, but this is just a rapid prototyping exercise for me.

 

Comments?

 


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Maybe better off with left and right scales to make both easier to see. Something to be said about comparing burn rates in the first one, too.

hstory1.jpg

hstory2.jpg


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Hi Mark,

Do you know if they are going to add back the hour by hour graph. I just moved from Gen 4 to Gen 5 and I am seeing a major data drain but I don't have a way of telling who or what is using the data. With the old graph I would go to when the data was use then run around asking everyone what they were doing at that time and on what device.  Now I have no way of knowing even that much. 

 

Thanks,

 

Jodi

@JodiAgosta

I've made the suggestions and offered the code changes, but not heard either way.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@JodiAgosta

 

If you start a new topic in the "Tech Support" section we may be able to help you to figure out what is draining your data.  Different devices utilize different apps/programs that can help to do this.  Because it may take a few question and answer posts, it's best to do it in its own thread instead of trying to do it here.  

 

While in the Tech Support section, click on the "Start a topic" button on the upper right.  You should choose a lable for the post, which you can find on the right side of the page.  In this case, data management would be the label to choose.  Just click on it and it will add that label.  In the post, make sure to list what devices you have connected so we can recommend the correct apps/programs to install or how to utilize apps/programs that may be preinstalled.   

 

Good luck.  🙂

dfbeck
Junior

As I just NOW got my new Usage meter going I'm all for what you have suggested. I dislike not knowing how close I am, day to day, or hour to hour, to going over my allotted data especially when it resets at the beginning of the month. The current meter is less informative and so far, has been grossly inaccurate, an issue I never had with the old meter. Best of luck getting it changed. I'll push for it.

The usage donuts are accurate for today.

The history is also accurate for days prior to today.

 

The only accuracy issue is using history graphs for today which aren't regularly updated. That withstanding, the Usage donuts serve that purpose for the current day's usage. So I don't understand your hyperbolic description of 'grossly inaccurate'.

 

'Not as precise' would be a much better description, since that is what I was going for... in fact, I used the words 'resolute' and 'resolution' on purpose so accuracy wouldn't be called into question.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, one of these shows I had over 100gigs on Sept. 11 and I have 30 left of Service plan?  And I had more than 50 gigs of Bonus. Screenshot (3).jpgHughesnet Meter2.jpg

The other meter is close to what I think I have left. Each time I open the meter it reads differently. It appears to have added the 7.3 gigs of tokens I bought sometime ago. Let me know if I'm reading this bottom one wrong. I have to start a thread on another topic. The Control is unreadable and I don't think that's an exaggeration either.

I shut down the computer with the meter and when I restarted it I started the meter again. This is what I call grossly inaccurate. I'd love to have that much data left but I know it's not true. I'd like to be able to trust the meter.

Hughesnet Meter3.jpg

Did you think about checking it against what My Account says? (hint: it's the same thing, you're probably just not reading the stacked graph correctly).

 

What you think you have doesn't matter. It only matters what Hughes thinks you have.

 

That said, what does this have anything to do with the topic of how to display the data?

Never mind... I probably shouldn't have asked.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

It's pretty evident how the thread meandered off topic. I'd like to have a meter that shows how close I am to exceeding my alloted data and I'd prefer one that is consistantly accurate.

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

The current meter is accurate, it pulls data directly from the modem, just like the old meter did.  However, it displays everything in a reversed order now... Instead of displaying how much you use on X day, it displays how much was available at the end of X day.

As far as the whole, "how close am I to going over" thing, it will still alert you if it expects you to go over your monthly allowance.
meterwarning.JPG