The Weather Underground iPhone App: Innovation in the Field of… Weather?

The Weather Underground iPhone App: Innovation in the Field of… Weather?

Before there were iPhones, the Weather Underground was actually the Internet’s first website that provided in-depth weather information. It consists of a network of more than 37,000 weather stations that are located around the world. Since the innovation of the website, the company took their design a step further to create the Weather Underground iPhone app.

How it Works

With the Weather Underground iPhone app, individuals can get up-to-date weather information for hyper-local areas. This unique app manages to still compete against the pre-installed weather iPhone app because it is literally the best in the field. It offers a customizable design that provides information about the weather when needed.

Keeping it Basic

One of the reasons that Google succeeded is it strove to do one thing well: run a search engine. Weather Underground seems to have stuck with that motto. This app has a very intuitive, basic interface. Instead of dramatic backgrounds or vivid colors, the backdrop is just a solid color and basic text. Due to this, users can focus entirely on the information scrolling past their fingertips.

Crowd Reports: Crowd Sourcing the Weather

With Weather Underground, users can actually crowd source the weather. When someone is using the app, they will see a suggested icon like a rain cloud or snow. All they have to do is tap the icon to confirm that it forecasted the weather correctly for that moment. If a rain icon appears and there is not any rain, users just have to reject the icon and select the correct option. This ingenious feature makes it so the weather report can be highly tailored to small areas. Other apps may have the same style of crowd sourcing feature, but they are rarely able to do it as well as the Weather Underground iPhone app does.