Quest for a better UX for weather
March 11, 2020
Weather apps have a UX which is too technical. Here are some ideas to improve them
My phone shows today's forecast and even hourly forecast for chances of rain. It show the forecasted temperature (°C) and chance of rain in percentage.
What does a 30% chance of rain mean? Technically, it means this: If we take all past days (for which we have data) which had similar conditions as today, then 30% of those days saw rain. As I am sure you can appreciate, this is a textbook definition of probability and it is hard, even for reasonably well educated folks to really appreciate what this information implied for them. Although the information is technically as accurate as we can be, it does not really tell the lay person what to do.
Then, what will a better UX for weather forecast on a smartphone screen? To answer this question, let us see what do people looking at the forecast really want to know. Perhaps, they want to know how to dress that day? Whether to take the umbrella out with them? Or, perhaps they want to know whether it will be a reasonable day for some walking (i.e. not too much rain) or whether its a good day for a picnic (i.e. full on sunshine).
So, may be the forecast screen can just show that: Full on sun or cloudy, umbrella or no-umbrella, walkable or not-walkable, T-shirt or Jacket etc. The duty of a good UX is to expose just enough details and in a useful format which the use can related to. And perhaps do something useful with little or no additional effort. Exposing too much detail is certainly harmful.
What does a 30% chance of rain mean? Technically, it means this: If we take all past days (for which we have data) which had similar conditions as today, then 30% of those days saw rain. As I am sure you can appreciate, this is a textbook definition of probability and it is hard, even for reasonably well educated folks to really appreciate what this information implied for them. Although the information is technically as accurate as we can be, it does not really tell the lay person what to do.
Then, what will a better UX for weather forecast on a smartphone screen? To answer this question, let us see what do people looking at the forecast really want to know. Perhaps, they want to know how to dress that day? Whether to take the umbrella out with them? Or, perhaps they want to know whether it will be a reasonable day for some walking (i.e. not too much rain) or whether its a good day for a picnic (i.e. full on sunshine).
So, may be the forecast screen can just show that: Full on sun or cloudy, umbrella or no-umbrella, walkable or not-walkable, T-shirt or Jacket etc. The duty of a good UX is to expose just enough details and in a useful format which the use can related to. And perhaps do something useful with little or no additional effort. Exposing too much detail is certainly harmful.