Weather App Concept
UX Research for a mobile weather app
--
Usually weather apps tells us only dry figures and we have to translate them into a clear «human» format. In addition often we have to take into account several external parameters such as season of the year, geo-location and other to adjust the information, because often same parameters, such as temperature, wind, and the brightness of the sun in different seasons and in different countries may have different impacts on how the weather will be felt.
I think the most natural way to identify the weather is to visually evaluate it:
- Whether the sun is shining, and how bright.
- Is there any clouds or rain.
- Is there a wind and how strong it is (by the way the trees swing or etc.)
Often, the temperature it is not so important.
However, it is often possible to get some additional understanding by looking at the other people: how they are dressed and what they do at all.
Today it is a trend to use the visual approach. Many weather apps show pictures or animations of the weather, in addition to the numbers. However, in the majority, it is used only to make the app to look more attractive. Generally they use a strictly limited set of these images and can not give a proper picture for all weather forecasts. Furthermore, the main focus is always given to the nature rather than how the people can feel it.
There is also a narrow category of apps that pay attention to clothing. However, most of them are very limited in use and often can only tell if you “need an umbrella or not” or they are some kind of “what to buy” apps and all their recommendations are based on the range of some online shops, which they represent.
With regard Weather-alert services the situation is more complicated. Most of these services are made to tell us when the weather turns bad, and how bad, but they can not alert us about good weather.
Main idea
The app must show the weather in a clear form, that even people who didn’t have experience with other weather application can get the weather forecast in the most natural form. The easiest way to do it — to show a detailed picture (with animation to define wind and other characteristics), that will help the user to “understand” the weather, rather than read it in numbers:
If the sun is shining. The sun does not always tells that now is a day, since in some latitudes could be a polar day or night and it could be sun at the night or moon at the day, and sometimes together.
If there are any clouds and do they cover the sun, the moon or the stars.
If there a wind and how strong it is: does the wind shakes the trees (and how). In addition we can use sound for the wind.
How people are dressed and how they react to the weather: do they hide under the umbrella from the rain or the heat or else.
What happens on the sea / river (if the locations is at the coast): is there a storm or all it is calm.
Photos or videos can not always give an opportunity to understand the real situation and it is unreal to have fresh images for all geo-locations. It is much more easier to make animated illustrations for every specific case, that can display all the key aspects and reflect the weather. Illustrations some times are more clear because we can pay more attention to important details and remove others. This technique works very well in children’s applications where any kid can understand what is happening on the screen and what can be done. Like in games we need to “draw” all the illustrations dynamically to reflect the current situation: a specific weather, geographic location, season of year and time of the day.
We can define three basic schemes of weather forecasting for the app.
- Short-range forecast
We are interested in “right now” weather forecast and what will happen next. - Long-range forecast
There can be a need in information about a specific day, set of days (or period), or even to know the weather in different cities within a certain period of time (for example, on a route). - Weather Alert
We need to know when there will be a specific weather. Ie we need to setup what weather parameters we are waiting for and want to know when this will happen. For example, when will be rain or conversely a sunny day.
To better understand the idea we can consider these schemes in several arbitrary user scenarios.
Scenarios
Scenario 1
The user (lets call him Mike)decide whether to walk to the work or take a bicycle and what to wear.
On the main screen, he sees:
Scenario 2
At the weekend Mike wants to go to the river at the park to do some painting and he need to be notified in advance about the possible rain or strong wind.
On the main screen Mike sees that could be rain in the evening. He goes to the Weather Alert screen:
Scenario 3
On vacations at the sea side in the morning Mike wants to understand how to spend the day: go to the beach to sunbathe or go surfing.
On the main screen, he sees:
Scenario 4
Mike plans a bike trip on the weekend and he need to know the weather on the route.
On the Map screen:
Scenario 5
Mike long been planning with his friends to go to the lake for a picnic, but he can not even catch a successful weather.
He goes to the Weather Alert screen:
Finally
Such scenarios have to take into account the locations of the place and maximum possible (but reasonable) scenarios of human behavior according to the time of day and season. The clothes also need to show sufficient detail (but keep them brief) to explain what the user could wear:
- Boots, sandals or even something light.
- A jacket or a t-shirt will be enough.
- Sunglasses, hat, umbrella, etc.
Various attributes, occupation and the surrounding environment can significantly complement the overall picture of the weather and give a better idea about it.
