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As an avid weather stalker, I can confirm that most of the programs and apps we turn to for our immediate climate information tend toward stale, overly detailed interfaces crammed full of information that the majority of people aren’t terribly concerned with. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad sites like Wunderground exist–the granularity is great–but the design is just so Web 1.0. Enter Weather Doodle, an arty iOS app with a creative and minimalistic interface with the ability to draw in even those who scoff at reports in favor of stepping outside.
What’s great about Weather Doodle is that it presents the weather in a very simple way while still providing a visually appealing interface. Each location screen is contained within what looks like an old television set–you know, the kind with the rounded edges. Cute and colorful animation displays the current conditions, whether it’s raindrops falling gently from the sky, a zigzag of lightning poking in and out of a cloud, or the suns rays circling around the big yellow orb. At night, even the stage of the moon is represented in the image.
Screenshot by Jasmine France
The amount of information on display is up to you. At its simplest, Weather Doodle shows the current condition artwork along with the temperature and location name up top. A click for a bit more information will pop up textual current conditions (such as “mostly cloudy”), wind speed and direction, and the humidity. You can also switch over to forecast mode, which displays the expected weather conditions over the next five days.
Additional features include the capability to add any city on earth with a simple search (with some granularity for larger metro areas), as well as the option to switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature measurement and mile and kilometer distance measurement (for wind speed purposes). There’s also an art shop where you will be able to find more themes by various artists, though there’s not much in there as of press time.
In fact, if there’s one complaint we have, it’s the limited themes that come with the app. For the 99-cent purchase price, you only get one, and each additional theme is set to be an additional 99 cents. Not that that’s an absurd price point for artwork–digital or no–but it would be great if an additional one or two themes were included in the original download. That being said, it’s a lovely little app, and anyone with an eye for style and an interest in weather should check it out.
