I made some good use of HappyCow.net to find a vegan meal in a hurry when traveling overseas. I've even used it sometimes when out and about around Aotearoa, where I'm more familiar with the options. But I'm trying to use it today and finding it somewhat awkward.
For one thing, tapping on a listing opens a new tab, then doesn't return to the list when I press the back button. Which is hardly a dealbreaker, but it's not great UX.
(1/?)
HappyCow.net seems to have dependencies on Goggle Maps too. Which is weird, because on the pages listing the details of eateries, it seems to use Leaflet to display data from OpenStreetMap.
Maybe what I'm seeing is the artifacts of legacy code that only shows up on FF-based browsers or something? But I feel a bit ambushed every time I see it try to pull JavaScript from Goggle.
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The HappyCow.net site promotes their app, which is probably proprietary, and certainly not available in F-Droid. Which is a shame.
I'm curious to know if it's just the typical companion app for most websites; a dumb browser that can only open one site. If so, a PWA would do the job.
It would be much more useful if it stores the database of eateries locally, updating it when it can (with a choice of WiFi updates only), enabling searches where there's no net connection.
(3/3)
@haraldkliems
> Have you checked out https://veggiekarte.de/?
This is brilliant, thanks for the tip!
> it's a 1:1 replacement of HappyCow yet
The UX could certainly use work, for sure, but it's a great start. I love that it uses data in the commons, shared with OSM and other geographical tools that work with open data.
I presume data on vege eating options can be added to OSM via the VeggieKarte interface? If not, that would be a great feature for them to add.
Strypey
Harald Kliems