³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Weather update: adding colour to temperatures
Post categories: Weather
| 16:30 UK time, Friday, 9 December 2011
Colours added to temperatures on the new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Weather site
A few weeks ago my colleague Liz Howell talked about how we came to launch the new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Weather site.
Since it went live we have been continuing to read and digest user feedback. One of the biggest requests has been to restore the temperature colours in the forecast, so we made a change earlier this week to add colour to some of the temperatures along similar lines to the old site.
This actually seems to address two separate issues: some users have told us they don't so much read the temperature numbers as absorb the colour, while others have mentioned how nice it is to just have some more colour on the page.
Looking ahead, many users have commented on how the place names on the maps obscure too much of the weather graphics and how it would be good to be able to turn them off. We are working on that feature now.
Following that, we are working on the priority of various other changes including improvements to saving locations, making the maps load more smoothly and introducing a proper interactive map. The maps work in particular is technically challenging but we continue to listen to what is important to our users and will continue to deliver the improvements that we are being asked for.
Peter Deslandes is Head of Product, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Weather
Comment number 1.
At 9th Dec 2011, Josh Tumath wrote:This is a great change. I'm looking forward to the map changes, too. The new site has been a big improvement.
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Comment number 2.
At 9th Dec 2011, brian192 wrote:May I just say how good it is to see someone at the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ taking notice of licence fee payers views at last. As one who did not welcome the new weather page I am least pleased with the temperature colours and the future possible removal of place names as a user choice.
If only your homepage colleagues could take lessons on your approach to comments.
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Comment number 3.
At 9th Dec 2011, jackyl wrote:I too am really happy that colour has been introduced to the temperature readings - makes it easier to see at a glance. I also concur with the opinion about the homepage redesign. Thank you.
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Comment number 4.
At 10th Dec 2011, Four_Winds wrote:It's all good I guess. I think you just copied metcheck, but went with horizontal rather than vertical wrt time. To copy Metcheck was a good idea. I would rather you went the whole hog however and put time on the vertical. Also I like the little animations of the weather on Metcheck; can you do those as well please?
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Comment number 5.
At 10th Dec 2011, marcus1972 wrote:We done Weather people. You have listened, adapted and improved the webpage based on user feedback.
Please can you pop across to the homepage designers and help them out?
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Comment number 6.
At 10th Dec 2011, DonningtonDave wrote:Better, perhaps, although the elements are a little big for my taste. Here's a site I thought first-class:
Cheers,
David
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Comment number 7.
At 12th Dec 2011, Piet Boon wrote:I just found out why there is so much white space on the page: international viewers gets adds from Google in that space. And we get half a page white and empty.
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Comment number 8.
At 15th Dec 2011, sionsmith wrote:Peter,
I must congratulate you and the team on the improvements you've made. I am curious to know if the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ GEL framework is open to external developers / open source? I found lots of documentation showing me how to use the great components you guys have built but no source code? Any advise / help would be extremely grateful.
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Comment number 9.
At 21st Dec 2011, bbcweatherfan wrote:There are quite a few features about the old website I miss. Although it was difficult to navigate with trial and error and the use of bookmarks you could access some interesting data. In particular I miss the temperature charts where you could track the movement of cold and hot air and see what is coming our way. You could also click on specific cities on the map to obtain more detailed forecasts. All this has been swept away and replaced with site which is even more difficult to navigate and has poorer graphics. There is no way of ascertaining what information is available on the site as there are no menu buttons (not even for the home page!) and few links to help you navigate the site. The colour schemes you have chosen for depicting fog/frost/rain/snow merge nicely with the colours for land and sea so it is very difficult on some of the limited maps available (e.g. Russia) to make out anything. Surely there must be some principles of good design for illustrating data which can be applied to websites? I suppose the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has spent so much time and money on the new website that we are stuck with it now.
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