Given the encouraging feedback and great suggestions I had after publishing my initial iPhone weather app concept it’s full steam ahead with version two. In this version I’ve added more information to the screen yet I’ve tried to reduce the overall visual noise. I’ve mocked up both a sunny and stormy forecast using data from BOM to get a better sense of how it would work with different forecasts.

Sunny day forecasted

Storms forecast

The specifics of what I’ve done and the rationale include:

• Added background photos that represent the overall forecast for the day. They are to instantly communicate what the day is likely to be like for users.
• Changed the sunrise and sunset text to icons (thanks Brett). Also removed the am and pm from the times, it’s pretty obvious which one is which! Both these changes help to reduce the overall visual noise.
• I increased the size of the current temperature considerably based on the feedback I received. This is the most important piece of information on the screen for users so make it really pop.
• I made the forecast maximum temperature bigger, this is because I consider it to be the second most important piece of information on the screen.
• I aligned the forecast min and max temperatures to the left of the screen with their lines extending full width across. I initially wanted to indicate where the likely peak temperature would be by just having a short line but I feel the projected line as well as the graph are indicators enough. Having them aligned on the left just feels much tidier.
• For Mr Green I added an umbrella icon which indicates whether you need to pack the wet weather gear or not.
• I faded out the beginning and end of the graph line as this feels more elegant. Ditto for the hour and noon lines. This again reduces the overall visual noise of the screen.
• I moved the title bar to the bottom of the screen – the information on it is once off information that once you know becomes insignificant.
• I added the long version of the forecast on the left-hand side of the screen – I feel this detail is important to have on the screen.
• Lastly I added the short version of the forecast below the city name in the title bar. Not necessary but it works there.

Love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

A few thoughts combined today which saw me rapidly put together this initial idea for an iPhone weather app. It’s a hot day here in Melbourne so lots of folks have been checking the weather to see how hot it is and when a change is due. People can get pretty obsessed by the weather, certainly all the users I tested when working on White Pages loved to know what the forecast was and I must admit it’s the first thing I check in the morning so I know what to wear when I hop on the bike and head off to work.

Recently I saw a website that presented the days temperatures on a line graph and I really liked the concept, it’s much nicer to have the days temperature shown on a line graph so you can instantly see how it’s trending. I can’t remember what site I saw it on (I’ll update this post when I find it) but the execution of it wasn’t great. So I thought I’d design something similar for the iPhone (to add to all the weather apps out there) and here is my first draft:

iPhone Weather App Concept

I’ve got a few other ideas I’d like to try incorporating too, like:

1. Compressing the mornings and elongating the daylight hours – how many people care about the wee hours really. This would make the more relevant information prominent.
2. Adding the textual forecast information in one of the corners, e.g “Partly cloudy. Winds north to….”
3. Adding a tiny right-hand side column showing the forecast for the coming few days.

This to me is the ideal home screen for a weather app – all the information I want to know prioritised and presented in an easy to absorb way. What do you think – like it or not? Should I try and develop it? Got any suggestions?