The weather is one of the most varied digital design objects in use today. Users have an increasing number of options for obtaining such basic but crucial information as weather forecasts and the like, thanks to the work of graphic designers who come up with a plethora of icons and illustrations in various styles and UI/UX designers who come up with new ideas for weather applications and widgets. The proliferation of weather apps hasn’t stopped it from being a hotspot for designers; after all, the subject is so fundamental to people’s daily lives.
Users are spoiled for choice with so many weather apps and services available, each with its own unique style, set of features, color scheme, level of complexity, etc. In addition, there is a virtually infinite and varied pool of potential buyers for this type of product; hence, creative solutions that adhere to the principles of basic visual efficiency and common sense will find an audience.
While working on a variety of user interface and experience projects, Tubik designers have also proposed various ideas for weather apps. Following that, our works and thoughts on the subject are present in this post.
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Concise UI guidelines for weather apps
The primary goal of designing a weather app’s user interface is to make the information easily understandable and useful. It is crucial to discover a layout and design that allows the user to quickly access all the information they need, as this is the part of the screen that does not have a lot of copy. Because of this, designers have a lot of room to express themselves creatively, but they also face a significant challenge: developing weather apps that are both visually appealing and extremely user-friendly.
There must be consideration for both the aesthetic and the practical. Because functionality is the first thing that keeps users engaged with such basic apps, the designer runs the danger of losing the audience if they don’t give enough thought to solutions that provide an easy and pleasant user experience and enhance usability as the basic point. Even if the app’s functionality and thought-outness are top-notch, it could still fail to attract users and blend in with the crowd if the designers focus solely on the layout and transitions and ignore the visual design. So, it’s up to the designer to consider all angles and come up with ways to make the design concept visually appealing, well-defined, efficient, and easy to grasp.
When it comes to weather applications, the boundaries for a designer’s creativity are significantly lower compare to many other product types, according to practice. When compared to, say, a social network or blog app’s screen, weather apps’ focus on concise text and visual details makes them unique in their approach to readability and efficient data presentation. Whatever helps users get a good visual impression of the data is fair game for designers, so they can experiment with different color schemes, shapes, textures, visual effects, animations, fonts, and icons.
Patterns and hues
The use of light or dark backgrounds is not constrain by any particular trend, requirement, or recommendation when it comes to user interface design for weather applications. For example, a light background can make the layout more user-friendly and the text more legible, which is useful for copy-based products where the aspect of readability is activated by the perception of a large amount of text. When it comes to weather apps and widgets, any color scheme—even the most bizarre—could be effective as long as it visually supports the data and makes it easy for the user to see and understand what they need.
In addition to the user’s individual taste, the product’s attractive color and shape combinations can entice them visually, which in turn can lead them to choose it over competing options. Therefore, the color palette is among the most expansive in this type of design. Sergey Valiukh’s work on Fuse’s weather concept has become an excellent example of practical application.
Another crucial consideration is the arrangement of the displayed data. The arrangement of data and the cards with the user-needed basic and supplementary information is one of the new design concepts by Tubik designer Tamara. The user can select the location (city, region, country, etc.) and receive a card with basic weather information (sunny, cloudy, cold, etc.) and additional information (date, time, according to local time zone, etc.). People who use it frequently and need a way to plan their schedules around local conditions may find it particularly helpful.
Design components
There are few things more crucial than investing time and energy into the visual components of weather applications. Because of the high visual nature of weather apps and the relative urgency of data perception, the primary goal of the visual elements should be to improve the app’s usability. A designer working on such an app must keep in mind that users may be accessing it from a variety of devices, in varying lighting conditions, and while on the move. It will be necessary to use it for people with varying degrees of vision. Consequently, the app’s graphic material should be both aesthetically pleasing and fashionable while also being easily perceptible in different environments if it is to be practical and usable.
Icons should be mentioned first among the graphic elements that are essential for an efficient weather app. We have previously discussed the significance of thorough work on this critical component of an interface in one of our earlier articles. Because they serve as highly informative components, icons in weather apps have a lot of room to grow creatively. The original set of weather icons for Tubik were created by designer Arthur Avakyan, who was aware of this. Because they all adhere to the rules and regulations of composition and proportion, the icons will remain legible and meaningful in a wide variety of color schemes. In addition, the designer made sure that their recognizability remains intact regardless of use by testing them across a range of sizes.
