Dark Sky - Peek Interaction
Before I get into detailing my submission, I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to ProtoPie for putting this on.
This being my first time using ProtoPie, I was blown away by the speed with which I was able to go from design to prototype—and a tactile, sleek prototype, at that. There are still more dynamic aspects and formulas I want to play around with (I detail these in Next Steps), but I am impressed with how powerful the software is. It was amazing to be able to mirror my interaction work on my phone, and I can't wait to integrate more of ProtoPie into my day-to-day work.
Now, to the pie:
Task
The task at hand was to take an app or product that I use every day, and come up with an interaction that enhances the current experience.
Problem
I use Dark Sky almost every day, and I love the richness of the weather data at my fingertips. But, I've always wanted a more robust way to peek at the upcoming hour, broken down a bit more granularly into quarters.
So, I challenged myself to revamp some of the current visual design, with a primary focus on crafting an interaction to solve the aforementioned problem.
Solution
The first thing I did was change the pattern with which the hourly data is shown. I felt that a horizontal scrollable list would be more intuitive, cut down on vertical space, but also allow for some subtle micro-interactions, like the one I've designed. It also allows the user to see more in their view, including the weekly overview.
When you long press the "Now" option, you'll see it come to life with the hour breakdown. I don't have this set up for any other times just yet. But, I have some ideas around how to handle this interaction, in the instance that the time is scrolled to the center of the screen.
Next Steps
• Dynamic time - I would love for the time to respond to the user's current time, and see that represented in the hourly overview, as well.
• Think further through the interaction pattern when an hour is scrolled horizontally into the middle of the screen and the user taps and presses.
• Dynamic weather data - I don't even know if this is possible, but it would be amazing to pull in weather data from current location and map that somehow.
• Layer additional data in hourly peek - I want to add in some humidity, and other indexes, and bridge the gap from a simple weather overview to more robust data.
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Disclaimer: It's actually going to be 100°+ here in Albuquerque this week... Phew.
