When a vendor is selected in the vendor listing in zone, that vendor should wave a sparkle hand (like NPC quest givers) to make it easier to find the one you're looking for.
the vendor listing in zone does not, and cannot, actually lead you to a vendor. it leads you to the marker of the lot the vendor is on.
Perhaps the tech for "smoke" that can be used to highlight open lots could be reused for this. For example, a taller and different colored smoke could be used.
I have had problems finding the vendor only once since the vendor listing was introduced - and that was Alphaines vendor whom he intentionally put in a place that was difficult to reach. The Map (m) shows the lot in green where the vendor is. The Compass shows the vendor so that you can run in it´s direction without even looking where you are going until you reach the lot on which the vendor is located.
Good point. That's actually an even better reason to implement my idea. The use case I'm trying to solve for is that when I use the vendor list, I often can't remember the name of the lot owner verses the name of the vendor. Although the compass gets me close enough, I can always figure it out, I often have to guess which vendor it is. Sometimes there are multiple vendors very close to one another. It's annoying, and it would be so much simpler if the vendor I selected from the vendor list was waving a sparkly hand at me. I wouldn't have to guess; I wouldn't have randomly select. I'd know immediately which vendor it was. I'd visually follow the compass to the sparkle hand. No remembering needed. No guessing required.
well then you're in luck, because the message that pops up to tell you that you've arrived gives the name of the vendor.
By the way, the way it currently works is that the selected vendor also appears on the area map (M). It still shows the marker in green though, while the compass color has been changed to red. The biggest problem is you have to zoom in for it to be distinctly visible, while it would be great if map markers remained the same size at every level of zoom. Tiny, unreadable map markers on a tiny map is very un-useful and bad from a UI perspective, IMO. Take this for whatever its worth, but from an RP perspective, I find the idea of the vendor you're looking for waving to you a bit strange, since it would be like they were expecting you. But the same is true for quests, too, which is one of the reason I disliked this as a solution. I don't see a good reason though to not implement also it for the vendor you're looking for as long as it exists in the game.