How’s the weather? – Behind the Scenes

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July 12, 2007

Posted: 11:59 AM ET

As many of you have noted through our feedback forms, we also overhauled our weather system. One thing you told us loud and clear in our research for this project was that weather was important to everyone (in one way or another). We wanted to make sure that we were able to provide you with the most useful and meaningful weather experience possible.

Now, in addition to getting 10-day forecasts and a wide array of weather maps, you have the ability to save multiple locations soyou can see what the weather is like either where you’re going or where you’ve been. Once you save your weather location, you’ll see the current condition displayed on the homepage and at the top of every page. Now you can get your weather anywhere you go on the site.

We’ve also gotten a lot of feedback from you about things you’d like to see. We heard you. Here’s what you’ve asked for:

Missing today’s Hi/Low forecasts
Overwhelmingly, people have requested that we add a Hi/Low forecast to our current conditions. That is currently in development and should be available soon.

Adding animated weather maps
Many people have been asking for animated satellite and radar maps so you can see storms in motion. We’re working on it, but just didn’t have it ready for the launch.

The ability to have Celsius or Fahrenheit temperatures
This was something we heard a lot in our early research. We’ve actually added the capability to customize your preferences, so you can set whether or not you see temperatures in Celsius or Fahrenheit. Simply click on the “F°” or “C°” links in the top left corner of the forecast page. Then, your preference should follow you throughout the site wherever we display weather forecast data.

Quirky city names on the homepage
You may have also noticed that unless you’ve personalized your weather city, you will see some interesting city names showing up on the homepage, e.g. “Truth and Consequences, NM”. The idea behind this was to show you how you can personalize your weather (wait, I don’t live in Normal, OK… I want weather for New York!). We’re working on some changes to this too, but in the meantime all you have to do is search for a city or click “personalize your weather” at the top of the page and you can see your weather and local headlines.

And we’re not done… we’ve still got a lot of new features and advancements coming to help improve our weather system.

Posted by: Dermot Waters, Sr. Director of Product Development
Filed under: content • feedback • technology • weather

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Alan

July 12th, 2007 8:58 pm ET

The new weather information is nice, clean-cut and easy to navigate. The AccuWeather graphics are a nice touch, too. Animation would be nice–probably would keep someone on the page without their going to another weather-specific site to get animiated graphics.

One thing, though, about your icons. Have you empirically validated (in some way, even if informall with focus groups), that the weather icons for each day’s forecast actually lead to the intended impressions? That is, do people generally get the difference between the pair of lighter clouds and the pair of darker clouds, etc.?

Good going….

Joy Tiseo

July 12th, 2007 10:22 pm ET

I think the weather link is great and will switch from the one I have been using. As a teacher, I will use it with my students because it is easy to understand and it will increase the possibility that they encounter information on current events that they would not find elsewhere. Thanks! -Joy Tiseo

sat d

July 15th, 2007 12:36 am ET

I do like the new and improved weather feature…especially the weird names of the cities…keep em coming!

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