A few thoughts on usability with landing pad locations:
The diagram is a good thing to have, but can be difficult to use.
When I'm in that situation, the main thing I want to know is how close the pad is to the entrance - near, middle, or far. While the compass shows you the location of the pad, you only see it after moving through the letterbox. I like knowing pad locations before entering because it allows me to appropriately set my speed going in. If I know it's close, I'll lower my landing gear before or in the letterbox. If I know it's far, I'll enter the station faster and lower the landing gear in the station.
Let's assume you don't know where a pad is and then you're given a docking bay number after requesting docking.
The diagram can be difficult to use if you don't see the pattern. To me, it was a jumble of numbers until I read a recent dev post explaining the layout. If you don't know the pattern, it can be difficult to find your pad location in the diagram. I have a hard time finding pad numbers in the diagram, even knowing the pattern.
To make pad locations easier for me to find, I made a spreadsheet that has the pad locations colour coded:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H0NJ_i3b3egbD5QYkFxoZepS8xGpHvT9aMfImHbxgWo/edit?pli=1#gid=0
Since it's in numerical order, it's easy to go down the list and find whether the pad location is near, middle, or far.
It doesn't need to say pad sizes because the station will only assign a number appropriate for the size of your ship. It doesn't need to show pad locations relative to other pads because that info isn't really helpful in finding ones own pad. Once you enter the station, people will either look for the holographic number and/or compass to find the exact pad location.
Pilots of large ships probably won't use this at all, as it's easy to remember where pads are:
- Large pads are either near or far
- If the pad number is a multiple of 5, it is far
- If it is not a multiple of 5, the pad is near
I know they'll be fixing the bay numbers soon, but depending on how they do it, it may or may not help much.
Most helpful would be if the only number you see is the one you've been assigned.
If all numbers show at once, then you're just searching for your number in a sea of other numbers - the same situation as finding your pad number on the diagram.