Playground: Weather APP
Week one of General Assembly; DONE. Right out of the gate, day 1, we were tasked with finding and tackling a pain point in a given “playground.” What I found surprising was that this project managed to take a life of its own. As I went into this, I realized that I had already thought of a cool weather app to do already, but though user research and synthesis I was able to take my idea into a whole other direction.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Weather Apps
Looking through different weather apps such as Apple Weather, Yahoo Weather, Accuweather and Weather Underground, I had found that many of these apps were cluttered and filled with useless information. Many of them contained ads that had nothing to do with the weather and most of them forced the user to scroll to find more information.
There were definitely things that I thought were really great in these weather apps too, such as the minimalistic quality and that there was a lot of information.
USER RESEARCH
At General Assembly, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by many of our peers and colleagues, so we could easily reach out to them and interview them regarding their interactions with our “playgrounds.”
One key thing I noted from the interviews was how each interviewee talked about how the weather, in particular the rain, affected their daily lives. Most of them had a point of view about the rain affecting the way they travel and the way they dress for the day.
“I check the weather every morning to see if I have to bring an umbrella that day or if I can take the subway or ride my bike”
This was a huge takeaway for me because it allowed me to hone in on that point and create an app that was really meant for the New Yorker on the go, wondering what to wear and how to travel.
SYNTHESIS
Affinity Diagramming
I was able to identify user pain points through the synthesis of their interviews. I had noted that they all struggled with finding pertinent information and that they all had a comment about the rain affecting their behavior when it came to transportation and clothing.
SKETCHING
Making an app that is both new and innovative is a struggle for me, especially when it comes to the weather, because there are so many apps out there already. With that in mind, I focused on the rain portion that so many people touched upon. I wanted to surface that information clearly and allow for users to still use the app for weather.
In the first panel, the home screen, I surfaced the rain information directly in the center, allowing users to see it at a glance while still having the extra weather reports still on screen. This eliminated the need for scrolling to find more information.
The second panel is the daily breakdown. It shows the day by an hourly breakdown and bolds and highlights the hours it will rain. At the top of the panel, there is a rain notification which users can enable or disable to receive a notification an hour before it is said to rain.
The last panel is the weekly breakdown. Much like the daily view, it highlights the days that have a chance of rain.
USER TESTING
“The rain notification button just blends into everything else on the page”
“I’m not sure where to find the hourly breakdown… is it the daily view?”
The user testing led to some insightful feedback regarding certain buttons and functionality. They gave me great suggestions, such as making the rain alert button bigger and more prominent as that was a feature they really wanted. Some of the things they really enjoyed included the clothing and transportation suggestions as well as the rain notification being displayed directly on the home screen.
FINAL MOCKUP
TAKEAWAYS
Something I learned from this project was, don’t go into it already with a solution. As you interview and user test, the project will take on a life of its’ own and take you down a new path. Coming into this, I never thought that I would be doing a rain focused weather app. I thought it would be more of a re-skinned, cleaner version of the weather app that we have today without all of the clutter.
For next time, I would just remember to listen to your user and really try to see what problems that are facing and let that be your guide.
NEXT STEPS
There are still so many things that could be done with this version. Talking to one of the students not familiar with Fahrenheit, I saw that there really could be potential to have celsius integrated with the app. In addition, there are so many different apps that can be plugged into this one as well, such as the metro system could tie into our transportation suggestions, or we could pair with different clothing companies to give suggestions on good coats or jackets to buy if it is raining.