Author Topic: New wunderground prototype?  (Read 3233 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
New wunderground prototype?
« on: August 28, 2018, 05:59:38 PM »
Rumor has it that wunderground is sending out invitations to see their new prototype.

Anyone else get that email?

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2018, 09:09:21 PM »
Oh nice. Please share the link peeps.

It will probably look like this:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990428160251/http://www.wunderground.com:80/

....nah...just kidding. Those were the good old dial-up days.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2018, 09:12:02 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2018, 09:17:36 PM »
Maybe this is it...?

https://www.wunderground.com/redesign/

....hmmm maybe not. It looks like what we have now, but just a bit different like that is maybe what we had before? If the link is old then why is it still around?

Or how about this old link:
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/wuproductteam/preview-our-new-site-design.html

« Last Edit: August 28, 2018, 09:23:57 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2018, 09:27:26 PM »
Tim Roche of wunderground says they are running tests for a new dashboard.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
« Last Edit: August 28, 2018, 09:30:16 PM by nincehelser »

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2018, 09:35:42 PM »
Awesome. Thanks UU

I'll have lots of great feedback.
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline WxFox

  • Northern Androscoggin Weather
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 98
  • Happiness is having my toes in the warm sand.
    • Northern Androscoggin County Weather
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2018, 10:26:11 PM »
If I did it got into the junk folder which I almost always delete without checking. I've had no issues with WU but I know some have. Except that they discontinued the Storm app for iPhone. I use Weather Mate now, still shows my station data and I like it even better.
Davis VP2 (cabled) Uploading to PWS, Weather Underground, Weathercloud, WOW, WeatherBug, AWEKAS and Twitter, using Cumulus.  Cabled = fewer problems, less maintenance and better reliability!

Northern Androscoggin Weather:
http://home.myfairpoint.net/~jody2011/index.php
Mobile friendly: http://home.myfairpoint.net/~jody2011//iCumulus/#_home
CWOP AV346

Offline catdon

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 159
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2018, 12:07:21 AM »
Well unfortunately, every website update they've  done over the years has been worse than what it replaced...
Don
Staten Island, NY

Offline Glenn

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 418
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2018, 12:49:34 PM »
That's pretty cool! Keep us posted George.
Acurite 5 in 1 Pro+
Southern VT
Connecticut

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2018, 05:39:18 PM »
Just got off the phone interview with Kristian, a product designer at wunderground.

Went really well.  Took about a half hour.  He sends you a link to start a google conference and then a link to the prototype on an "invision" site.  You take screen control and continue talking on the phone.

Kristian asks you some basic questions about what you think of the layout and asks you to do some simple tasks like switching between sensors and different display modes.  All the while you talk about what you like and don't like about the layout.  There is a lot of back-and-forth conversation while Kristain takes notes of your observation and comments. 

The nice thing about being in control of the screen share is that you can pop over to other website so you can better show what type of displays you like.

Had a good time, no pressure.  If you have the chance I recommend doing it.

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2018, 07:33:45 PM »
Were you on a Web Cam video conference? or was it just voice conference?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm signed up for Friday afternoon. I noticed the time slots filled up quick last night and it has been closed since even though some spots like 10 were still open when it closed.

Let me know if you remember any issues you didn't like. Better that they hear it from more than one person to make changes happen.

Was the presentation mostly normal weather forecast use focused or was it focused on weather station hosting features?

When is the target launch date?

Are you allowed to share or did you have to do a NDA?
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #10 on: August 30, 2018, 10:43:38 AM »
Were you on a Web Cam video conference? or was it just voice conference?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm signed up for Friday afternoon. I noticed the time slots filled up quick last night and it has been closed since even though some spots like 10 were still open when it closed.

Let me know if you remember any issues you didn't like. Better that they hear it from more than one person to make changes happen.

Was the presentation mostly normal weather forecast use focused or was it focused on weather station hosting features?

When is the target launch date?

Are you allowed to share or did you have to do a NDA?

It was technically a web conference, but we didn't use the camera or the computer mic.  Just the screen-sharing feature and the phone.

There wasn't anything I really considered "horrible" other than they would show their graphical representation of parameters first, rather than go right to the graphs.  I found some the of graphical representations just to be a waste of real-estate.

One thing I did like was that they plan to allow you re-arrange the screen modules to your own preferences.  That wasn't fully working yet, though.

Web Cams seem to be part of the plan.  I said that would be great as long as they get back to being reliable.  I'd also like to see all my web cams on one page with basic weather info for each one.

Most everything was focused on how to present your own weather station data.  There was a little talk of forecasting, but not much.  I don't use wunderground's forecasting very often, so that might be why we didn't go in depth.

No NDA was involved.  Right now I think they're just looking for reactions and validating their ideas and concepts on how things might look.

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2018, 01:26:13 PM »
I agree with the points you raised. I'm also not crazy about graphical sensor representations taking up too much real estate. I like that now I just scroll and the graphs are there. Hopefully the graphs are still a scroll down to see and do not require an extra mouse click to see. I could live with large graphical sensor representations as long as I can scroll and see graphs live. It would get old and annoying fast if I had to click.  I can't wait to see it. ....Hmmmm....Maybe I'm just set in my ways and don't like change. I wonder if a separate page for graphs would be better...that way I could bookmark that instead of the live controls. So maybe a mouse click is okay. I guess I can't make up my mind. Mouse click or scroll?...what is the difference? But I still do agree that large graphical sensors are bad. I'll tell them to offer a small and large version as options in user settings (for individual person settings not for the station owner as everyone should be able to see things the way they prefer.) Maybe that can be part of the screen arrangement settings you saw.

Good to hear about the cameras. I know that is a sore subject. I'm definitely going to mention cameras and making them reliable and adding weather conditions as part of accompanying them.

Some other issues that I'm going to bring up as feedback.
- ability to see registered station hardware for other countries
- ability to see humidity graphed
- ability to have private indoor temperature and humidity published and seen privately for station owner
- ability to combine multiple weather information sensors that upload into one station ID (so I cold add separate soil and leaf wetness...etc and keep existing weather station hardware)
- make improvements to camera reliability and features
- Quality Checking reporting like MADIS does on individual sensors (better than old cryptic Gold Star). Let's incentivize station owners to maintain and replace their stuff. WU is but a cesspool of junk failed weather stations. I got my own weather station mostly because I got tired of my nearby stations being bad.
-  ability for station owner to moderate conversation of their weather page comments section...get rid of Disqus which can have junk linger that others posted.
- ability to send messages to station owner. Disqus messages go unnoticed by station owner. They should be able to get an email notification without revealing their email.
- ability for wundermap to see METAR stations (at least ASOS and configurable on-off)
- ability for wundermap to see MADIS stations (configurable on-off)
- ability for graphs to compare neighboring stations by allowing selection of custom multiple stations
- ability to edit data charts (that is broken now)
- ability to upload missed data from mySQL export or CSV file (useful for when Internet goes out), also useful for stations without live data connection and maybe they can upload from memory files that they pull daily.
- Live Radar that is not delayed
- Decide what to do with Wunderstation...finally release Android version or replace it with something that is available on both iOS and Android. The new Storm app is good but I can't see my station with it.
- give wundermap ability to see pressure (can you believe that is missing!) This is one of my biggest grips. People don't calibrate their barometers. Might help to be able to see it on the map and draw attention to outliers.
- add topology to maps. People don't know their elevation. They need easy way to click and determine elevation.
- Fix old and unreliable Mapbox maps.
- Fix Favorites!!! and also city named favorite should take me to my station ...not whichever one it wants for that city, or allow station favorites.
- ability for station owner to add email alerts if data stops or becomes bad data (broken sensor alert) at determined frequency.
- Weather Stickers not working
- allow custom mix of units to be displayed. I want for example pressure in hpa but temperature in deg F.
- ability to add/edit weather station pictures.
- ability to specify exact weather station hardware. Especially for Acurite systems.
- Why does WU mobile app show station owners username but regular website doesn't? Be nice to have option to show a nick name or first name with email link rather than a username.

If anyone has any feedback they want to add let me know before 12PM EST (UTC -4) tomorrow Friday before I speak to WU, so I can add it to the list. Let me know what I forgot.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2018, 07:03:14 AM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2018, 03:18:29 PM »
I just got done with my one on one with Weather Underground. They gave me access to a mock up website that shows the direction they are thinking about going. This isn't final. It will be a few months before it is available. The modules are able to be customized (expanded for more data or collapsed and moved around added or deleted). They are large sensor modules. You can expand to individual graphs inside of each module. If you go over to the History tab though that just looks the same as the current graphs. So instead of scrolling you click and you see all the graphs that you have access to now. I told them I'd like the option to see History graphs at the bottom of the sensor module section by scrolling down.

I gave them my feedback on the look and controls. I didn't like UV (Too big and no graphs.) All usual graphs still visible in the History section though (unchanged). I also went over my complete list of feedback posted in my previous message. I discussed every point and it was so much that he asked that I email the list to him.

Here are some screenshots.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
« Last Edit: September 01, 2018, 12:13:50 AM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #13 on: August 31, 2018, 03:20:05 PM »
More screenshots...

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Anyone notice how dumb that weather camera shot is? It isn't worthy of being called a weather cam. Where is the sky?


« Last Edit: August 31, 2018, 05:53:09 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #14 on: August 31, 2018, 05:49:09 PM »
If you have feedback after seeing this new interface please post your comments. Weather Underground lurks around here and they might stumble on this post. So make your opinion matter and offer some constructive criticism. You are not allowed to complain later if you didn't vote (unless you didn't see this information).

By the way I have an open direct line of contact email to the person I dealt with at WU. So if you think of something and others like it I might reach out and email them. He told me to follow up with anything I think of later.

Here is something I just thought of. Gold Star stations that glow on the map. Like this image I did below (not professionally done...did it in two seconds with crappy MS Paint just to convey idea):
Map zoom out should prioritize Gold Star stations. Of course if you read my comments above you'll know that Gold Star systems needs to be completely revamped with separate QC metrics like MADIS.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
« Last Edit: September 01, 2018, 12:32:50 AM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline ocala

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 4383
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2018, 06:22:16 PM »
Not impressed at all.
The blues had a baby and they named it Rock & Roll

Offline CW2274

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6731
    • Conditions @ CW2274 West Tucson-Painted Hills Ranch
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #16 on: August 31, 2018, 06:32:40 PM »
Of course if you read my comments above you'll know that Gold Star systems needs to be completely revamped with separate QC metrics like MADIS.
Never happen. Waaaaay too big of a task, they can't even manage what they have as is.

Offline havtrail

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 206
    • Haverford Weather Station
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #17 on: August 31, 2018, 08:45:20 PM »
Thanks for posting this! Interesting to see...  - Rich K.

I just got done with my one on one with Weather Underground. They gave me access to a mock up website that shows the direction they are thinking about going. This isn't final. It will be a few months before it is available. The modules are able to be customized (expanded for more data or collapsed and moved around added or deleted). They are large sensor modules. You can expand to individual graphs inside of each module. If you go over to the History tab though that just looks the same as the current graphs. So instead of scrolling you click and you see all the graphs that you have access to now. I told them I'd like the option to see History graphs at the bottom of the sensor module section by scrolling down.

I gave them my feedback on the look and controls. I didn't like UV (Too big and no graphs.) All usual graphs still visible in the History section though (unchanged). I also went over my complete list of feedback posted in my previous message. I discussed every point and it was so much that he asked that I email the list to him.

Here are some screenshots.
[...]
Onset HOBO RX2102 Cellular
https://www.havtrail.com/weather/
NEWA https://newa.cornell.edu Haverford, PA

Offline Jasiu

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 947
    • LexMAWeather
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #18 on: August 31, 2018, 10:15:40 PM »
If a temperature of 70F and dew point of 69F means a RH of 69%, I'm not sure if I can trust anything else on the page.  :grin:
https://lexmaweather.info
On Mastodon: @LexMAWeather@toot.community

Offline galfert

  • Global Moderator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6822
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #19 on: August 31, 2018, 11:59:11 PM »
If a temperature of 70F and dew point of 69F means a RH of 69%, I'm not sure if I can trust anything else on the page.  :grin:

Good catch! But like the camera image that is not a weather cam, the entire demo site was not really live with real data. And much of it was probably done by computer graphic design people and not weather people. So they probably just picked numbers out of thin air. It was prepopulated and it just let me click on thing to view changes. They don't have a working site yet. This was just conceptual design work that then after being designed and accepted as a final draft, then it goes into becoming reality with real browser code. The demo site worked more like a smart PowerPoint where depending on what you clicked on it took you to that view's slide. You couldn't even hit the back button on the browser because it wasn't really being rendered by the browser, you had to click on a different thing to then be taken to that view.

This project is just at its infancy. Early on for them to make big changes. It will most likely change from all the feedback they are getting from those like me that got to participate in their prototype design event. This is months away from being launched.

« Last Edit: September 01, 2018, 12:06:46 AM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

Offline WSWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 483
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #20 on: September 01, 2018, 11:35:20 AM »
I see they're continuing their push toward eye candy at the expense of easy access to data.  Evidently WU's designers think everyone has the attention span of a gnat and needs big graphics to keep them engaged.  Every revision of the site has pushed tabular data farther down the page (or just dumped it entirely), replaced by useless crap like those "rain gauges".

There is no reason why the entire current dataset for a PWS can't be shown on one "page" without scrolling.  Designing to tiny-screen mobile devices may be sexy now but it really shows how little IBM cares about the data they are presenting.

Offline SWX

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 74
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #21 on: September 01, 2018, 03:40:11 PM »
Looks almost exactly like the Wunderstation app for the iPad. I’m no power user, but it looks overly simplistic, not sure if I’m onboard with these potential changes.

Can heat index / windchill data make a return?
Wunderground / PWS Weather
Ambient Weather WS-2902A
Ambient WeatherBridge
Ecowitt GW1000
Ecowitt WH31
Ecowitt WH41
Ecowitt WH51 x 2
Ecowitt WH57
Ecowitt WS68

Offline Glenn

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 418
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #22 on: September 02, 2018, 09:55:21 AM »
Looks almost exactly like the Wunderstation app for the iPad.

I thought the exact same thing when I saw the screen caps.

Thanks for posting those galfert.
Acurite 5 in 1 Pro+
Southern VT
Connecticut

Offline ggsteve

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 583
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #23 on: September 02, 2018, 10:34:00 AM »
I think it's fine.  One feature I have always wanted on the WU maps is the ability to choose stations that I want to show all the time, such as my own and my high school's.  Even if they are offline, they could be "grayed out".  I would find this particularly valuable if a storm front is on the doorstep or passing overhead.

Offline Bashy

  • brecklandweather.com/meteo
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1465
  • brecklandweather.com/index.php
    • Breckland Weather
Re: New wunderground prototype?
« Reply #24 on: September 03, 2018, 01:25:42 AM »
Here is something I just thought of. Gold Star stations that glow on the map. Like this image I did below (not professionally done...did it in two seconds with crappy MS Paint just to convey idea):
Map zoom out should prioritize Gold Star stations. Of course if you read my comments above you'll know that Gold Star systems needs to be completely revamped with separate QC metrics like MADIS.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

A bit pointless really, seen as the gold stars only represent how long a station has been uploading without a break in data, so in effect, all your idea would do is prioritise gold star stations regardless if the data is accurate or not
Kind regards
Bashy