THE AVION
B4 UX Corner
Weather Apps: Such a Breeze! Jacob Guliuzo and Nicholas Reuss Graduate Researchers
Why use weather apps?
Imagine you are planning a trip to the beach over the weekend. You want to make sure that you will be able to spend the weeken¬d enjoying the sun, sand, and waves and not be stuck at home. You open up your trusted weather app and check the weekend’s forecast. You see that the weather will be “A mostly sunny day with a high of around 80 degrees, no chance of rain and a slight breeze to keep you cool,” perfect for the beach! While this might be a more popular use of weather apps, tracking a hurricane such as Dorian might be a more valuable use of these apps. It’s important to know what app you can trust when making decisions like these. Weather apps are useful for monitoring both of these, but which app is the most popular among students? What apps do our students trust when it matters most? Weather is always changing, and so are the ways you monitor it. There is an abundance of apps and services that give weather data, and some are more specialized than others. We wanted to know what apps students are using and why. To do this, we collected a survey of approximately 100 ERAU students. We found that 56 out of the 100 students reported that they used weather monitoring services. 19 students said they use Apple Weather, 11 use The Weather Channel app, eight use Android Weather, six use Accuweather, four use Foreflight, two use Weather Underground, and
five said they use some other app. The question remains, why do students prefer one service over others? Twenty-one students reported that Apple Weather was their primary service with Weather Channel app service having the next highest and Android Weather being the third highest. The most popular reasons for this were: “It’s easy to use and already on my phone,” “It shows the upcoming weather forecast hourly,” and “It does alert me of hourly weather reports.”
How useful is each app?
So, just how useful are these apps, and why are they used? We asked how accurate students thought their preferred weather apps were. About one-third of students reported their preferred app was between 85-95% accurate, and another third of students reported it to be between 75-85% accurate. Overall, most students perceived their preferred weather app to be around 80% accurate. But is this accurate enough when accounting for a major hurricane? What level of accuracy is enough to give you the peace of mind you need during a storm of such magnitude? Some apps were reported as more accurate than others. Specifically, Accuweather was percieved as the most accurate app used by students. Students reported that they thought it was about 90% accurate while The Weather Channel was seen as the least accurate weather app with about 74% accuracy. Is this different enough to make a change to a new app? Over half of the students report-
Usage of Weather Apps
Image Courtesy/Jacob Guliuzo
ed that they tried multiple apps to monitor the weather. Despite this, the most popular services were the default weather app for each phone. Students said that it was the most convenient option. “It’s easy to use, and it’s already on my phone” became a common response to why they went with their preinstalled app rather than a third-party app. Generally, students said they preferred convenience over accuracy or trustworthiness of apps. We also asked how much students trusted their preferred weather app. Regardless of how accurate they thought their preferred app was, most students had either “a moderate amount of trust” (39%) “a lot of trust” (43%) in their preferred app.
What features Are students using?
Students were given a list of 11 possible features used in weather applications and asked to rank these features in importance. Features such as today’s temperature, the weather this week, an overview of today’s weather, location accuracy, and hourly forecast were the most popular. Meanwhile, pollen rating and air pollution levels went unused. We then asked them to rank the importance of the features. The feature that people ranked the highest was today’s temperature, followed by the hourly forecast. The three features that people felt they could do without were air pollution levels, countrywide weather, and pollen rating. Some apps also had unique features which set them apart from the
others. Accuweather has Minutecast, a feature that provides minute by minute weather data for every minute over the next two hours. Foreflight provides weather data along a designed flight path which is useful for the pilots on campus here in Daytona. The Weather Channel app provides news regarding weather and other natural phenomena around the globe. Weather Underground tells you exactly where the weather data is being monitored from in your local area. Unlike other weather applications, Weather Underground uses live data from the ERAU Micaplex to provide accurate local weather data and forecasting. There were several features that students said they used less frequently than other features. These, for example, would be air pollution levels, pollen rating, and live radar, to name a few. While there are many options for weather apps available to students, most students generally use the default app that comes preloaded on their phones. Students noted that because the app was preinstalled and is moderately accurate, they felt no need to download another weather app. Most apps are generally perceived as 80% accurate. This perception might also be why most students have, on average, “a lot” of trust in their preferred apps. No matter what your reason, every student has a preferred app for monitoring weather. Even weather applications can not always predict the path of a storm like Danger Dorian.
Image Courtesy/Nicholas Reuss
Features from: Accuweather, Foreflight, The Weather Channel and Weather Underground
Jacob and Nick are graduate students in the Research in User eXperience (RUX) Lab in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology. RUX investigates the usability and user experience of technology in our everyday world. These articles are a regular column that explores different technologies typically used by Embry-Riddle students.
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