Water-sports enthusiasts need detailed weather to stay safe, but many users find detailed weather charts confusing and hard to read.
A weather app with easy to read weather charts that is customizable so that users don’t have to sift through charts they don’t need.
Splash is a responsive web app for people who like to be out on the water all day. It makes it easy to save favorite places (or discover new ones) compare conditions for each location quickly, keep track of all your gear, and drag and drop the weather charts to see what you need first.
This was my student project for the CareerFoundry UX Immersion course.
I tried out some highly regarded apps (such as Windy, shown here) and confirmed the initial hypothesis that detailed weather maps are overwhelming in the amount and display of information they offer. Not only is Windy overwhelming but the menus disappear depending where the user taps on the screen.
Next, I brainstormed user stories and developed interview and survey questions.
When tackling a new challenge, I find myself filled with questions. I’m passionate about UX Research because I can put my questions to use right away.
I truly enjoyed meeting and chatting with the interview participants and consider research one of my favorite aspects of the design process.
During the interviews a new, deeper problem came to light: None of my interviewees liked their weather apps. I asked which they used, how they chose them, and what features they most liked or disliked. Nearly everyone used the one that came preinstalled on their phone. “But it’s not very good,” they’d add.
If I had been a more experienced researcher, I might have pursued that insight. Why don’t people feel they have a choice in weather apps? What does that mean for our product?
I learned that Splash’s main user groups are the less technical users who nonetheless need more detailed weather than the average weather app provides.
These took me through some scenarios described by my interviewees, mostly necessitating features that would come in later versions of the product. For the MVP I decided to stick with the basics.
I knew that revisiting favorite locations was a common activity, so I made it easy to keep a list of often-visited spots so that users could compare conditions on a given day to decide where to go.
Each user also reported a long list of things they wouldn’t want to forget, so I implemented checklist creation, along the same lines as creating the list of favorite places.
Finally, I wanted the weather itself to be customizable, because each user has different weather needs and it is frustrating and visually overstimulating to have to scroll past charts you don’t need.
Breaking things down into their most granular details, I began to develop the information architecture. I conducted a card sort and with the results I finalized the site map.
Since this was my very first UX project, I had never used a design program before.
I tried out a lot of YouTube content before I found a few great teachers of all things Adobe XD, but ultimately took a Udemy course in XD to really get my head around the tool. Now I feel confident I have a handle on it.
Nothing is cheaper than pencil and scrap paper to get out the first ideas.
The beginning of the checklist tab and the favorite places tab
Though I did some in Balsamiq, these are my first attempts at Adobe XD.
I prototyped at this level of fidelity so that I could run usability tests before getting too fancy with colors and images.
I developed a detailed usability test script and plan, linked up these still colorless screens and got 5 people to test the prototype out. Using my notes, I put all the data into a color-coded spreadsheet to show which errors were most severe and required immediate attention.
Many of the issues discovered were issues with the functioning of the prototype, not overall issues with the design. But fixing the prototype is important because it is the first experience stakeholders will have with the product.
I continued to iterate on the design over time, using preference tests and collaborating with other design students.
The current prototype represents what could be released as an MVP.
Time in the world or further testing would determine whether my ideas for checklists or other features are helpful to users.
The personas have higher level needs that could be addressed in future iterations, such as:
