Itinerant – a fuzzy weather forecast app

by pttrn • 7 years ago

59 33 7 years ago

tincholio2• 7 years ago

I think this goes a bit too much in the "imprecise" direction, so much so that it doesn't convey actual useful information (at least in those images shown). First off, short-term weather forecasts are not inaccurate, for the most part, so knowing that the temperature will be 21C (±1 degree) is more informative than knowing it'll be "brownish mass". Secondly, the heatmap style makes more sense when it's overlaid on top of an actual map, and you have an actual scale to interpret it.

What does "cool", "warm", "warmer" mean in here?

That being said, the images look pretty nifty, so it has that going for it.

pttrn12• 7 years ago

I see your point. The article doesn’t explain everything, inside the app there’s a “helper menu” that you can summon by tapping the screen and there you can see the actual exact temperature, precipitation, and wind intensity values (as numbers). They are sliders you can play around with, and are crucial in “training your eye” as to what the “brownish mass” actually maps to.

pttrn12• 7 years ago

I've updated the article to be more clear about the existence of the auxiliary interface. Thanks for the comment, super useful!

tincholio2• 7 years ago

Sure thing!

oh_sigh• 7 years ago

I don't know...I don't care much about the specific degree of weather(fahrenheit has a finer integer resolution than celcius, but celcius users manage just fine talking about the weather without going to fractions). It's really irrelevant to my life what the exact temperature is between 68 and 80 degrees. I may adjust my plans if the temperature is outside that range, but not if it is within that range.

nemo1618• 7 years ago

I really like this. Reminds me of the difference between analog and digital watches: the former gives you a "fuzzy" time, but also a more visceral understanding of how "close" one time is to another. Maximum precision can be useful, but it also feels unnatural, more appropriate for machines than humans. It's important to remember that accuracy and precision are not the same thing!

pradn• 7 years ago

Time is reckoned in quarters in many parts of the world, especially rural areas. At my computer job, I can always see the time in minutes, so I leave for meetings with the least amount of wasted time. Precision is both indicative and generative of action.

kqr2• 7 years ago

I've been meaning to put something similar together for a while now. The visuals in this one are certainly more striking than what I had in mind. Neat!

pttrn12• 7 years ago

Thanks! :) By all means do, we need more playful software if you ask me!

kqr2• 7 years ago

Can I ask what data source you use? I have yet to find one which covers my part of the globe, provides data for free, and gives some measure of confidence of the values reported.

OceanKing2• 7 years ago

I like the app, it’s very intuitive, I’m considering making it my go-to weather resource. I think it could be improved by adding an hourly forecast - perhaps consider adding a slider for how the blob will change over the course of the next 24 hours?

pttrn12• 7 years ago

Thanks! I'm not sure what you mean by hourly forecasts, you can already swipe left/right to change the observed point in time?

OceanKing2• 7 years ago

Oh wow, you can! This feature is super cool, I didn’t see it mentioned in the app description though. Thanks!

ericschn• 7 years ago

Looks great! Any thoughts on adding humidity?

pttrn12• 7 years ago

Thanks! Yes I'm thinking about it!

bussierem2• 7 years ago

Would it be possible for me to inquire as to what library you used to generate the smoke samples for your app? I have a project where I wanted to do something very similar (just not for weather), and I've been having the hardest time finding a good library for it!

anonytrary• 7 years ago

This is absolutely brilliant. The only barrier I see to these new visual languages is the initial barrier to learning the language. Either way, I hope more human interface research starts exploring this avenue.

justusthane• 7 years ago

This would be incredible as a live background, both because it's aesthetically stunning, and also for the information it can provide at a glance. I don't know enough about iOS to know whether (weather?) that's possible or not.

pttrn12• 7 years ago

I'm not sure, although I developed this in Unity so I imagine it would be a lot of jumping through hoops to get there... (upvote for the pun :D)

xled• 7 years ago

Do you have any plans to port it to Android. Would love to try out the app.

pttrn12• 7 years ago

I'm considering it!

oliv__• 7 years ago

I like the idea of leveraging our already powerful sense of vision and pattern matching to communicate the weather but I feel like this does more to hinder understanding than it does to facilitate it.

If you're going to use a visual language, why not use one that people already know and recognize instead of introducing new patterns/symbols that you have to learn?

pttrn12• 7 years ago

That's a very valid point. One of the main reasons for introducing a new visual language (apart from purely artistic ones) was to intentionally inject a dose of ambiguity into the readings. Our existing visual systems (words, numbers) are implying preciseness which is not always there with weather forecasts (it is decreasing the further away you go from the current point in time), and I was trying to break away from that.

sdwr• 7 years ago

Beautiful! Mapping data into raw-er perceptual forms feels like a rich area for exploration, plus you get to flex coding and design skill at the same time. Any plans for an android port?

pttrn12• 7 years ago

Thanks! I would love to do an Android build but time and resources (e.g. devices to test on) are scarce. I haven't ruled it out though, let's see how the iOS version fares financially ;)

franga2000• 7 years ago

While I still want to see the actual data, I would love this as the background for my weather display. For the same reason I like analog/digital watch combos: if you're just walking by, you can get a useful approximation, but the very precise data is still right there when you want it.

Siira• 7 years ago

I think a free demo should be available, or at least some clear evidence of what information this app provides that a traditional one doesn’t. You have mentioned some of the shortcomings of traditional apps, but you have not demonstrated solving those. As of now, this app seems more of a beautiful art project than a pragmatic weather app, to me.

localhostdotdev• 7 years ago

quite amazing, would love this as a background on both phone and desktop

rakoo• 7 years ago

The idea that vision is so powerful that it can recognize shapes to the point of building a language instantly reminded me of the language used by the aliens in Arrival (https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/14/dissecting-the-alien-lan...). I'm sure Itinerant won't go so far as create a whole new grammar but both the blurry, ink-like feeling and the reliance on patterns are interesting.

Itinerant – a fuzzy weather forecast app

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