Wunderground News 

Wow...if this is all you've got to whine about consider yourself blessed. I'm sure the homeless folks sleeping on the streets this Winter would settle for either format...if they had a computer. So sit your ass down in front of your computer or whatever device you're fortunate to have in front of you, chill out and most of all, shut the hell up.

Why didn't WU set-up a beta version so we could check it out and provide feedback. Perhaps they did, but I didn't see it. Instead they just released the new design and now are dealing with the fallout.

Did the same folks design this site that designed TWC's site??? Looks like a copycat site to me...Quit TWC years ago when they got too cute...May be looking for another one now...Too much white space and scrolling to get where you want to be...Have been a paid subcriber since 2002...That may change soon...The old site was PERFECT!!!Now it takes clicks/scrolls to get to where I want to go...What a surprise to find this 'IMPROVED'(not) website yesterday...Had to cool down a bit before sending this...Oh well, maybe they will bring the old site back as a 'PREMIUM' site and we can pay more to have the old site back...

Pat...you're the best!

...Im still cold down here today though.

tyvm Wx

It's 32 at my house in San Diego! What the...

I sure agree - the new site is HORRIBLE!!!

What were the designers thinking?
Oh, I know: HOW MUCH MORE SPACE CAN WE DEVOTE TO ADS ADS ADS ADS ADS
and
How difficult can we make it for people to find the information they're used to seeing?

Fire these people.

Not a fan of the new site.

I had set the top page of Wunderground to show me the Fronts map of the northeast. At a glance I could tell what the weather was and what it potentially may be over the next few hours. In the winter, especially this year, that has been invaluable in storm planning. I don't have that anymore.

My favorites were moved from the left-hand side to the top of the screen. The type is smaller and the names aren't in bold. It took me two days to realize where they were moved to. I would assume that favorites are important, so why is the type size smaller and the names not in bold anymore? Additionally, by listing them across than down, I am limited in what I can view on the screen at once.

My local page is cluttered. The right-hand side of the screen has information that I don't really care about. It's not focused on my local area but more about national or world events. It shouldn't be there. The old page was great. At the top of the screen you could see current weather, weekly weather at a glance, and weekly weather details all on the same screen. Now I have to scroll all over the screen to get local weather. Community and Travel & Activities is a waste. I really don't care about South Pacific weather when I'm looking at my local weather page.

The type is smaller on the site. There are many things that are nearly unreadable. I have a large monitor with a high resolution and the readability of the site isn't as good as the old site.

The design is clean and sleek, but you really should have had a few usability experts and users beta test the site. Good design doesn't always mean good usability.

I am glad the classic version is back. I will be bookmarking all my saved bookmarks back to the classic view because it is far more usable than the current web site.

My Bad...Just found the link to the old version and am able to get to it for now...for those who have not found it, 'http://classic.wunderground.com/'...

Life is GOOD again!!!

Quoting WxWyz:
Wow...if this is all you've got to whine about consider yourself blessed. I'm sure the homeless folks sleeping on the streets this Winter would settle for either format...if they had a computer. So sit your ass down in front of your computer or whatever device you're fortunate to have in front of you, chill out and most of all, shut the hell up.

I find your argument to be full of FAIL!!!

OK, I found the "Scientific Forecaster Discussion" which I always read, and they've given a choice of the original uppercase NWS product and a new expanded lowercase product without abbreviations. For people like me who are not knowledgable in all the jargon, this is a whole lot easier to understand.

So far, so good.

First, I believe wunderground.com is a small operation with a couple people. There isn't a big marketing team that could be fired :)

Two constructive comments:

- Show text forecast without clicking on each day.
- Allow the individual "blocks" (I don't know what else to call them) to be reordered on the page. I'm not asking for any drag and drop; just a pulldown where I can pick first,second,third,don't show at all, for each block on the settings page.

Overall, I like the new format. It's not perfect, but I am sure it will continue to be tweaked. The forecast information is easy to see in summary and more detailed information is easy to access and I like the seven category tabs. I've seen many complaints about the "wasted" white space, but it's important to keep the page uncluttered to improve readability.
Suggested improvements would be adjustable font size for everyone and customizable boxes for paid members. Being able to customize the location forecast and conditions page would add value to the membership.

I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER SINCE 2002 AND ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE.  NOW I  HAVE TO LEARN THE NEW SETUP AND CAN'T FIND ANYTHING.  WHEN YOU GET OLDER AND HAVE TO USE TRIFOCALS TO SEE THE COMPUTER, A WEBSITE THAT IS IN MICROSCOPIC PRINT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE.
PLEASE GIVE US AN OPTION OF CLASSIC OR NEW WITHOUT HAVING TO OPEN MORE THAN ONE SCREEN.
 
 

Hi -

Long time member & I must admit that through the years I've loved all the changes except for the latest one...
It's too "white" & the blogs are way over on the left side of page - it is easier to read when the blogs are centered.

You guys are great - but this is one change I'm not a fan of... hopefully it will grow on me with time. : )

As always appreciate your work...
Thank you for making WU the best Weather Blog!

951. WxWyz 3:45 PM GMT on February 03, 2011
Wow...if this is all you've got to whine about consider yourself blessed. I'm sure the homeless folks sleeping on the streets this Winter would settle for either format...if they had a computer. So sit your ass down in front of your computer or whatever device you're fortunate to have in front of you, chill out and most of all, shut the hell up.



:)

glad you're back, Mike!!!!!

Sorry. I don't like it.

I don't like having to scroll down to see the forecast. On the old site the current conditions, weather map and forecast were right at the top of the page. No scrolling necessary unless you wanted more info.

Plus the old site had a 7-day forecast instead of a 5-day forecast. I know the extra two days were probably not the most accurate, but I liked having them. They at least gave me an idea of where things were headed.

I know the old site was a bit cluttered, but this one is nothing but white space. I feel like I'm swimming in it, trying to find the information I'm looking for. Maybe this would pass with a bit more use, but my first two comments wouldn't.

I think I'll stick with the old cluttered version until they kick me off...

WOW! Two years??? Really!! That's all! Somebody has a secure job. Sad to think my subscription fees went to pay for this bad,unoriginal and hard to navigate site.Classic site still far easier to gather information needed with less effort. Take a couple of years off and put back the classic view.
PS Fire your web designers.

Quoting WxWyz:
It's 32 at my house in San Diego! What the...

Yeah, well, the Weather Underground now wants ads that are linked to the local forecast or some such hooey -- so enjoy the winter clothing offerings.

I hate the New Site, please bring the old one Back

I am sorry but I absolutely hate the new site design. The old design gave me the info I needed in a clear and concise manner and made it easy for me to delve deeper into areas that interest me. As a 30 year LTA pilot/flight instructor and Florida resident meteorology has been an important interest of mine. I am just not feeling this new venue though. Would it be possible for subscribers to choose between the current and a classic view? That is the only way I think I could continue to use and pay for this site.

I don't particularly like the new design. The old design was compact with a lot of information and easy to go to other links. I miss the text extended forecast right where I could see it. Where is that now? The new design has information spread out with way too much white space; I don't need all that space. Please leave the option available for the classic design. Classic gives much more information available at one glance. Please keep it available! I would hate to have to go to the NOAA NWS site to quickly get information I want!!

Hi WunderPress,
How's the weather in San Francisco?

What a bunch of cry babies!

Great new site WU!!!

WHY? Who did this mess? I test software for a living and several basic rules were broken here.

1. Does it give more information? If not why bother? This gives less.
2. Is it easier to see? With no color in the forecast it is much harder to see.
3. Can you read it easily? The Font is tiny and very hard to read.
4. Is there too much white space wasting the page? Way too much.
5. Was there a survey taken to see what people want to focus on? NOT!!!
6. Do you have to go more than one page deep to get the information you need?
Here is where the epic failure comes in. You can't ever see the information you need on the new pages. I'm not sure if you get the purpose of looking at a weather page. I want today's hourly forecast instantly. I want at least a 10 days forecast. I want a season forecast for the year. I don't want pictures, blogs, advertisements, and general filler. I don't want to go searching all over. I want a large clear radar map.

Try again, this was a disaster. Looks like I'll be going else where to find a decent weather page until it's fixed or switched back.

I love the new and improved look. Keep up the GREAT work.

I go to Wunderground for a weather forecast (imagine that). I can't believe you spent two years creating a new layout that makes it much more difficult to see the weather forecast. If your goal is really as stated "with the goal to improve the user interface and make it even easier for our users to quickly surface the weather data that they are looking for" I would say you failed miserably. I suspect the goal was to display more ads, and make them more prominent than the content . . . please allow the classic site to be easily accessed (not going through new site, entering zip code, etc.)

So far, I like the new design. It's modernized, renders quickly, and shows a lot of information in a much more readable format. I like the new favorites view at the top. I miss seeing my random wunderphoto on the left with every view, but I'll get over it - the new pager view is nice, too. Overall, a very nice facelift.

On a more personal note, I'm really shaking my head at some of these comments. If a wunderground customer of 15 would actually leave because scrolling down a few clicks to see what the weather will be 3 days from now makes their lives unbearably miserable, then all I can say is "Holy crap!": Either they have the best, most wonderful life ever and this is the worst thing they can think of right now (really???) or the worst, most terrible life and to add insult to infected amputated and re-reinfected injury, the damned Weather Underground developers had to personally make their life not worth living anymore by adding some white space to a webpage. Really?

Flash flood warning, reality is 20' above flood stage and rising fast. This is life on the Internet. I've worked developing applications and software in the internet industry for over 20 years (Yes, I'm old in geek years). I'm unfortunately used to seeing this kind of vitriolic "I'm leaving you" from people every time a change is made to something, but since I'm just a customer here, a very happy customer, and don't usually afford myself the opportunity, I'm going to something to say on the matter.

I know how it goes behind the scenes, but from my end, this has been a pretty well-executed launch. I've watched in utter horror as much, much worse went down. Whoever did this put some time into the details of the design. They rounded corners, they've made sure the page loads quickly despite the large amount of information they are conveying. They combined information in new ways that shows useful history, made favorites front and center. Someone actually paid attention to where the text positions in order to be most legible. Someone actually made an HTML5 wind direction display. In short, they put work into crafting this site and crafting it well. I recognize many were happy with the old site, myself included, and would have used it till the fiber decayed with nary a complaint.

But I feel compelled to point out that there is REAL craftsmanship here and I hope everyone posting "This is crap! I'm leaving!" re-thinks that position for a minute in terms of the fact that these folks spent 2 years making something. If your tenure as a customer means anything, the least you can do is spend a /few minutes/ to think critically about it and offer meaningful feedback that they can actually use to make it better. These angry drive-bys just don't really do much (and I know for a fact, you aren't going anywhere, anyway). If you wanna depress someone, deflate people that deserve to be deflated. Like the man with the most ridiculous name ever standing on-camera telling you all about the live action weather radar while you stare at his fake tan and overly-sprayed bad hairplugs.

The stuff that I love about Weather Underground: the early-adopting of new technology (I remember the first time I could click and see the warning/severe overlays -- that was cool at the time... did anyone else do that? I don't /think so! *3 snaps*), insightful, quality support of mobile devices esp iPhone, the accurate as-heck forecasts, the blogs and great insight from Dr. Masters and others on deeper issues beyond the 3-day outlook, the timely delivery of warnings to my phone, high-quality radar images, engagement with each other thru personal weather stations and the photos... It's all still here and looks great.

One of the reasons I have adored wunderground.com for YEARS and pay the ad-free fee (I don't really care about the ads, I pay them because they earned it) is their no-nonsense approach. In a world dominated with crappy media companies more obsessed with you-heard-it-here-first image than actual informative value, the Wunderground guys have always focused on what I (and I suspect everyone here) feel is most important: reliable and timely reports on the weather - now, then, and soon-to-be. The people who understand it. The people who live in it. I don't know any one of the wunderfolks personally, but I know small, energized company when I see it. They wanna make a great product, and they do.

Compare and contrast briefly to other options in the market and I think you'll agree: they are special. When's the last time you felt the need to go sit and watch the well-named 24 hour channel with riveting reporting on atmospheric conditions and a half hour of live-from-the-eye-parka-man? That's what I thought, me neither.

My advice to the wunderteam as you review the feedback is to remember that you ARE NOT is as much, if not more important than who you ARE.

OK, so I'm just one guy who reads these blogs and feels your pain and wanted to throw you a little sunshine, but... remember that you really are special out here. Despite folks saying they'll go to NOAA, or weatherbug, or accuweather (blech!), nobody else does what you do, and I want you to hear that.

Quoting Duane7:
WHY? Who did this mess? I test software for a living and several basic rules were broken here.

1. Does it give more information? If not why bother? This gives less.
2. Is it easier to see? With no color in the forecast it is much harder to see.
3. Can you read it easily? The Font is tiny and very hard to read.
4. Is there too much white space wasting the page? Way too much.
5. Was there a survey taken to see what people want to focus on? NOT!!!
6. Do you have to go more than one page deep to get the information you need?
Here is where the epic failure comes in. You can't ever see the information you need on the new pages. I'm not sure if you get the purpose of looking at a weather page. I want today's hourly forecast instantly. I want at least a 10 days forecast. I want a season forecast for the year. I don't want pictures, blogs, advertisements, and general filler. I don't want to go searching all over. I want a large clear radar map.

Try again, this was a disaster. Looks like I'll be going else where to find a decent weather page until it's fixed or switched back.

It's about the ads, obviously. Your analysis is correct but I think the marketing people had taken control on WU. I came back this last time to say that I do appreciate that the new site design compelled me to get out of a rut and look for a new favorite, several times a day site to use - and I have already found several contenders with much more respect for their users! So, thanks, WU "design" team for getting me to look around after 5 years of always going to WU.

Still playing with the new web design, so I will hold my comments for now. But why has my weatherstation disappeared? KAZChino1 is gone from the list of available stations and no longer appears on Weather Exchange. Is that related to the new web design? Yes, my weather station is updating and communicating to Weather Underground.

An old saying goes, if it isn't broke don't fix it. It wasn't and now is. The old screen allowed you to view weather data about your chosen location at the macro level (~6 days), and mid level on one screen (~6-8 days). If you wanted more you just drilled down to the specific data you were interested in seeing. Now you get 3-4 days at the macro level and have to look for everything else. The map of the US that allowed you to select a state and then reporting sites within the state was very handy and is now missing. I used this for trip planning numerous times. It would be best to ask for the likes and desires from the users, a beta site would be useful, prion to doing this much "work".

It does seem like, as others have said, that there is a lot of white space. I suppose I will get used to that.

What I really miss is the ability to see pictures from a particular city or state. I looked all over my local forecast page and couldn't find any way to look at local pictures.

The Classic view was just great, you could quickly see a lot of information for your location and that of your favorite locations. It was not hard to find detailed data. I agree, the new format is as bad as TWC's.
I've re-bookmarked the CLASSIC view, that goodness it is still available.

Everyone is complaining about "more ads" Are you looking at a different site than me? I don't see any ads.

Take a little time to get used to it before you complain. Change is annoying, yes, but give it a week and see how you like it. How terrible, you have to spin that little wheel on your mouse to scroll down or click on a tab to get to a map.

Some of you plan on changing sites to ones that "respect" their users. How do you know? You may get used to that site and then next month they'll change it and you'll complain and move on. I was not happy yesterday when they changed it, but am getting used to it.

I do have a couple of suggestions.

1. Give me the option to select my "home" page when I enter the site. That shouldn't be any harder than storing a cookie on my computer.

2. If you can't do #1, give me a choice for the city that shows up in the "WunderSearch" block. I live in California and work for a national company. When I go to the page from work, it shows the weather for Kansas which is where my IP is registered. I really don't care what it's like there. Same as the maps. It pulls up the radar for where my IP address is instead of where I live.

3. Give me the option to move the blocks around. If you can't do it on the "standard" tabs, give me the option to add my own tabs and place blocks there that I want like Google does.

Other than that, I like it now that I'm getting used to it.

Quoting TEXASNANA17:
I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER SINCE 2002 AND ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE.  NOW I  HAVE TO LEARN THE NEW SETUP AND CAN'T FIND ANYTHING.  WHEN YOU GET OLDER AND HAVE TO USE TRIFOCALS TO SEE THE COMPUTER, A WEBSITE THAT IS IN MICROSCOPIC PRINT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE.
PLEASE GIVE US AN OPTION OF CLASSIC OR NEW WITHOUT HAVING TO OPEN MORE THAN ONE SCREEN.
 
 

If you can read this, hold the CTRL key on your keyboard and scroll the wheel on your mouse forward to enlarge everything.

Hummm I dont have any Ads

Quoting thebaron:
So far, I like the new design. It's modernized, renders quickly, and shows a lot of information in a much more readable format. I like the new favorites view at the top. I miss seeing my random wunderphoto on the left with every view, but I'll get over it - the new pager view is nice, too. Overall, a very nice facelift........

Well said!

Quoting pjguyon:
Where is the seven day forecast on the new format?

That's what I've been wondering...I still can't find it, and that's the main reason I use this site.

At least all I have to do is change "www" to "classic" in the URL to find it again...

I'm going to give it a thumbs DOWN. The old site was easier to read, better graphics, larger fonts.

I thought the new format might render better on my Android Galaxy-S, but its even worse on that.

no ads for me either....

It appears a lot of people are complaining BEFORE they even get used to the new format. I am seeing a lot of UNCONSTRUCTIVE criticism of the new look and feel by people who obviously haven't explored the site.

Personally, I always felt the old design was too cluttered. This one is easy, more logical, and yes, you have to scroll down to find other information, but so what?

I give WU a thousand points for putting the effort into creating a great site and improving it. I'm sure they will wade through all of the worthless comments to find the few gems that will help them to make further improvements.

New format is worse than the old in every way. It looks like the USA Today, or one of those sheets you get from hotels or rental car places to tell you the weather.

Overall, I hate the trend of websites in general (not just this one) to move away from words and toward picture forecasts. They are less clear, and less accurate, so why? Can't people read a few words? I like to read the actual words the NWS issues for the forecast, not a bunch of pictograms generated from MOS data. The old format had the NWS zone forecast right up front. Now I can't even find it anywhere on the page.

I never had any trouble finding the data I wanted on the old site, or problems with load time, or anything like that.

I'm glad the "classic" format is still an option. I won't be renewing my subscription if it disappears.

I pulled up your new site again and still couldn't find the detail that I wanted to see. I have just changed my bookmark to pull up the "classic" site for my local forecast. I don't like your short and simple forecast and still can't find the detailed text version of the 5-day forecast. When you make things too short and simple, you are insulting my intelligence and the intelligence of many other average people who want to know about the weather.

Quoting EastTNBlonde:
I pulled up your new site again and still couldn't find the detail that I wanted to see. I have just changed my bookmark to pull up the "classic" site for my local forecast. I don't like your short and simple forecast and still can't find the detailed text version of the 5-day forecast. When you make things too short and simple, you are insulting my intelligence and the intelligence of many other average people who want to know about the weather.

Hit the nail on the head! They made the actual NWS zone forecast almost impossible to find. I was just experimenting, and you can see the words of the zone forecast, but only for one day at a time, by mousing over the picture forecast. Not sure how this is "easier" than having the forecast displayed right from the get go.

I miss the 7-day forecast! Can you put it on the new site? Or is it somewhere, and I just am not able to find it?

getting used to it

yay 1000