Next Exit History app needs more work

The Next Exit History app sounds like a good idea but needs plenty of extra work and refinement before I can recommend it to Route 66 fans and other roadies.

Next Exit History was developed by the University of West Florida and Historical Research Associates. It’s designed to help users with iPhone and Android devices to find more than 57,000 historical sites across America. It’s a free download.

Although it’s an all-inclusive app, Next Exit History has seen fit to publicize itself by using the Route 66 shield on its app button and a background image of Route 66 in Southern California’s Mojave Desert on the app’s home page:

According to the app’s technical information:

Scholarly, certified information is provided via text, images, audio, and video formats and is based on users’ proximity to heritage tourism sites as well as their interests. […] Scholarly, certified information is provided via text, images, audio, and video formats and is based on users’ proximity to significant sites as well as their interests. […] The current database of information is primarily populated with Historical Markers. We are working to expand the database to include more museums, parks, interpretive sites, and much much more.

You can use the app by searching around a particular area, or simply letting your device’s global-positioning system find historical sites nearby. Here’s a one-minute video from the app explaining how it works:

Next Exit History from Next Exit History on Vimeo.

The app shouldn’t be considered as all-inclusive in finding historical sites along the Mother Road. It highlights locations that are officially named as historic sites, when any Route 66 aficionado can tell you there are a great deal more historically significant places than states or the National Register will tell you. Still, a listing of 57,000 sites certainly is a good start, and it might help you find interesting places you might have otherwise overlooked.

However, how the app works leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve used it a couple of times on my iPhone, and it’s prone to long load times and frustrating interface problems. An example of the latter: You’re surfing around a map of the Tulsa metro area and see a promising-looking spot pinned in the southwest part of town. You click on the pin there, and the app instantly zooms in to a detailed map of the site — even if you didn’t want it to do so. A small, informational pop-up window would have been preferable to the zoom. With the instant zoom, going back to your first map is a pain.

The search function doesn’t work well, either. The map indicates a half-dozen historical sites in Tulsa. But if you type in “Tulsa” on the search function, it brings up one site.

And for some reason, my app defaults to the Topeka, Kansas, area when it loads or refreshes. Perhaps there’s some sort of bookmark function to prevent this, but it wasn’t clear. Either way, it’s irritating.

I thought the problems might have been just mine, but a plethora of mixed or bad reviews on the Google Play site show otherwise.

Your mileage my vary. At the least, the Next Exit History map should be used as supplemental road-trip information and not a primary source.

One can download the app from Google Play or the Apple app store.

(Hat tip to Dave Todd)