From a public point of view, I find the template sites cluttered and inefficient when it comes to locating information quickly with minimal clicks.
What does your site look like?
I would also like to ask, if it is cluttered and inefficient, then what elements do you deem to be a high priority for a weather website? The purpose of starting this thread was to develop what folks think a site that exhibits best practices, contains. Simply saying "template sites cluttered and inefficient" doesn't give anyone any specific ideas of what is generally accepted as being good content.
I also note that kcidwx doesn't post a link to their weather website, so I would put a lot more credence in a comment such as Bunty's which is more or less, "My website pleases me"... mine isn't focused exclusively toward 'local', but also designed to provide a 'quick' info for friends and fam in a few other areas also,... and yes, it was a bit more efficient as far as 'radar' is concerned before I finally had the last straw with Wunderweenies feeds... someday, if I feel like it, I may do some updating,.,. otherwise, to paraphrase Bunty one more time...."My target audience is a total of 100±". ... and it pleases them. Oh.. more than that, since NWS likes the snowcam stills, and severe conditions reduce streaming to less than 1 FPS on the streams... which carry current WxData as overlays... it also became mandatory that I implement a 'timeout' on streams, after 5 minutes, to break connections. So... it may not be so much 'how it's presented'... but 'what is presented'...
Again, the content should be determined by your target audience. I'll talk about the general public as the target audience since I think that's who most of the websites are targeting.
My current website is for my own personal use. I don't care who is or isn't using it. So it's irrelevant when it comes to what the public wants for weather information. I actually did a study on it in 2012. I used to have a template site loaded with every type of weather information possible. In working with the public for 13 years in the weather field, I quickly learned they only care about a few weather parameters. So I decided to put up a single web page with the data I commonly see the public requesting. Then I posted the links to both web pages (template/single page) on our local Facebook community group to get feedback. I got hundreds of replies and 78% of respondents preferred the boring, simple, single page. Matter of fact, I was asked to leave it up so they could use it. There were no links on it. Everything was auto updating. No need to refresh. It was a very well organized single page. Quick, simple and easy! Mobile users raved over it. I wasn't surprised by the results. I was pretty much expecting that.
That's my experience. Take it for what it's worth. Do you think most of the public cares about solar radiation, HDD, CDD, wet bulb, upper air data, cloud heights, just to name a few? Do you think they even know what most of that information is? I've even seen forecast models on sites clearly targeting the public. What are they going to do with that information? If you hit them with a ton of data that they don't understand or feel they don't need, they will go elsewhere. Here are the common requests I see from the public. The list is short. Obviously this is geared towards the weather in our area.
- Temperature, wind chill, heat index, rainfall, snowfall
- Current animated radar
- 7-day forecast
- Watches, warnings, advisories
- Road conditions (winter)
Optional: It doesn't hurt to have dew point and humidity. Most people don't understand dew point and prefer humidity. Visibility (fog/snow). Wind speed on very windy days. They usually don't care about wind direction and they don't care about barometric pressure.
I realize not everyone is looking for just the data I listed above. That's what you have to determine. How much is too much or not enough data for your target audience.
Most are going to your site to view weather that may impact their day. They are not going there to see how pretty your site is or how much garbage you can put on it. So don't ask how you can generate more traffic on your site when your site is stuffed full of data that most people have no use for.
I like Dr Obbins post above. Excellent!
