AccuWeather Launches Redesigned App with Enhanced Features and Better User Experience
AccuWeather Global Weather Center – July 20, 2020 – Weather is one of the few things that people think about multiple times every day, no matter where they are in the world. Weather powers the daily decisions we make from routine choices regarding a work commute, soccer practice, or washing the car, to life-altering actions that might cause a family to evacuate in a disaster in an effort to preserve life and protect property.
Today, AccuWeather publicly announced a completely redesigned version of its popular weather app that is easier to navigate for these everyday decisions. The app features an attractive and bold new user interface, while placing its unique and most valued feature, AccuWeather MinuteCast®, front and center in the new design. The new app enables both iOS and Android users a significantly better and more convenient way to access AccuWeather’s highly accurate forecasts and alerts, delivered faster than any other source, as well as other comprehensive weather insights that users want and rely on most, such as the patented and exclusive AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature. The new app is now available for download free in the Apple App Store and coming soon to the Google Play Store.
The dramatically upgraded AccuWeather app tells the story of the ‘here and now’ as well as the ‘what is to come’ with new beautiful, useful detail, entertaining animations and other enhancements unique from other weather apps. Improved performance, faster load times and better design combined with the superior accuracy, precision and reliability AccuWeather users have come to love and trust, create a new, ideal tool for users to plan their lives, check hyper-local forecasts, and get ahead of severe weather disasters to keep themselves and their families safe.
The reengineered app experience, paired with AccuWeather’s proven superior accuracy and popular features, allow everyone from everyday users to weather fanatics to easily access the most up-to-the-minute weather forecasts and data they want, whenever and wherever they want it. Most important, AccuWeather forecasts provide the best information that is not only convenient for planning, but that also helps protect people and property when severe weather threatens. Better displays more clearly communicate current and future weather conditions to help users make better weather-impacted decisions; in another breakthrough, exclusive new satellite-based radar maps help users track the progression of tropical storms as they develop over water.
“AccuWeather’s commitment to making the most accurate forecasts accessible for every consumer in the best and most user-friendly weather app available has been the essence of this project from the get-go,” said Steven R. Smith, AccuWeather President. “The new app features our most popular and useful tools, like AccuWeather MinuteCast, right when you open the app with greatly expanded information available at a glance for better planning. Android and iOS users alike will find that checking the weather is easier and more intuitive than ever before with the most accurate information at their fingertips to make the best decisions for their day.”
AN UPDATED WAY TO WEATHERPROOF LIFE
In the new app, users can easily interact with AccuWeather MinuteCast to see precipitation intensity and types predicted for their precise location, for every single minute up to two hours, in a new ‘looking ahead’ section. AccuWeather has also created an easily navigable hourly screen with hourly forecast data, up to 72 hours, that naturally and effortlessly gives a user the data they need to stay informed; whether staying in-the-know on the UV Index to avoid sunburn and dangerous skin exposure or seeing which hours will be affected by a storm warning. The hourly section is a natural lead-in to the daily section that features an interactive 15-day forecast as well as AccuWeather’s exclusive 45-day forecast; AccuWeather is the only app to provide the 45-day forecast for better planning. Light, black and dark modes enable user customization for greater personalization and convenience. In coming updates, the app will also feature exclusive air quality forecasts up to 96 hours ahead, providing users with insights into outdoor air quality to inform healthier lifestyle choices.
“A year ago, we set out to re-envision how we take weather information and present it in the most beautiful, intuitive and personal way with accessible features our users care about most. We wanted to take advantage of all the ways our phones and wearables could enhance the clarity and simplicity of information that keeps our users informed of how weather could impact their lives,” said Kurt Fulepp, AccuWeather Global Chief Product Officer, who led the new app design and development. “Our challenge was to take a vast amount of information and translate that into an app that was stunningly beautiful, easy-to-navigate, and enjoyable to use. We developed the product on a cutting-edge native tech stack, which means all our users will have a superior experience, regardless of device.”
Users will find greatly enhanced versions of their favorite and unique weather tools, in addition to AccuWeather MinuteCast and AccuWeather RealFeel, among others, along with completely new features including in-app access to AccuWeather content, a dark mode that reduces eye strain, a COVID-19 map and tracker, and a completely reimagined allergy module. AccuWeather’s proprietary grid mapping system also provides hyperlocal forecasts down to the street corner, giving users a precise way to know what the weather is like exactly where they are.
Many of the app’s new features and updates were refined in a beta test over the last several months. Key global tester feedback indicated users had strong overall satisfaction across both iOS and Android versions: tester survey results demonstrated high scores for navigation, color scheme, font, and overall appearance, and Android beta users clearly highlighted enthusiasm for enhanced widget features and customization.
The new app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
See the Full Story >>
