Partly Cloudy
New weather app combines high design and usable data in a crisp infographic-style interface
From the creative minds at Raureif comes Partly Cloudy, a new weather app designed for those who have a penchant for both design and numbers. While many recent apps in the weather genre tend to favor minimal design over crowded dew point variables and vectors—or vice versa—this rendition manages to combine both with elegance and intuition, giving users an easy way to peruse a sizable amount of information regarding the day’s weather conditions.
Partly Cloudy begins with a friendly tutorial that slides through the app’s potential screens, each decorated with easy-to-read labels that describe the purpose and meaning behind every figure and number. The main, user-friendly interface looks like a traditional clock face and can be set to either a 12-hour, 24-hour or seven-day forecast, depending on the location (seven-day forecast my not be available in some areas). Moving the “hand” around the 360º diameter changes the time, while the temperature, precipitation level, wind force, the day’s high/low and the weather situation (rainy, cloudy, partly cloudy) update in according real time. Clearly, the designers found a way to pack a lot of information in a surprisingly small space.
The beauty of Partly Cloudy comes in its colorful circular interface that is not only easy to navigate, but also pleasurable to interact with. The outer ring changes color in a series of gradient patterns depending on the time of day and weather conditions, while the inner circle contains mini vector lines that reflect ever-changing wind forces (yellow) and precipitation amounts (blue). In a world where it seems to be raining new weather apps, it’s crucial for users to be able to choose between those that are tailored towards designers versus meteorologists. We’re happy to have found one that caters to both.
Partly Cloudy is available for 99¢ in the iTunes App Store.
