Saturday, March 23, 2002
When weather.com first popped up on my screen I could not tell that it was a weather website it looked like another seach engine website. It also did not fit the entire server screen which was very distracting and took away from the site. Everything is done on at the same scale and in a similar format including the subject, and the advertising which says that the advertising is equally as important as the weather information which I don't think it is, you don't go to the weather.com site to look at advervisements. I think that if they played with the text size or text blocks sizes it would help the visiter keep focus on whats important; the weather! Also with all the text being the same it makes it harder to find what you're looking for. Also I feel that if they made the logo and it's block larger it would give a well needed breather space to the site maybe helping a little with the clutter of the page.
The pages of their travel, and sporting events, links are less cluttered and much easier to use and find what you are looking for. The actual function of the website is nice, it is easy to use and the information they give you once you type in the town name is very nice and more than what I was expecting. It gives you the current conditions, a 10 day forecast, a live doppler radar, and also you can find out about sporting event delays, airport delays, and other very useful information like that. Overall the site is okay, if the would fix the home page then I think that it could make a big improvement.
posted by danielle courtney Saturday, March 23, 2002
Thursday, March 21, 2002
posted by Elisa Wadsworth Thursday, March 21, 2002
posted by Erin Penrod Thursday, March 21, 2002
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Yes, there is a title on the page, yet the question remains, what is being presented? When first opening weather.com one is bombarded with additional pop-up windows advertising links to the page’s supporters, such are not only unpleasing to view, but also a complete nuisance to close and remove. Animation automatically will attract attention and in the case of this page, the location of the animated frame lessens the precedence of the already stifled title. The arrangement of weather related frames within the page seem to be scattered and separated by informational links to unrelated topics such as shopping and local services. The page’s bright color choices are appropriately designed for its audience yet the abundance of text and framing contribute to a great degree of confusion within the page. Not only do frames often times contribute to a great deal of frustration when attempting to load a site, but in the case of this page they also fail to distinguish one block of text from the next primarily due to their likeness. The lack of consistency from page to page contributes yet an additional degree by altering the alignment of previous frames the viewer may easily become disoriented when attempting to navigate through the site. Although there is a sense of bilateral balance, it is quite an undesirable solution given that the blocks of text lack the boldness necessary to counterbalance that of the animated frames. I feel the weather.com page would benefit from greater attention to precedence, less or bolder framing, reduction of visible font, and consistency in its navigation.
posted by sarah norville Wednesday, March 20, 2002
I just remembered why I stopped getting my weather info from weather.com. It's because the site leaves me with a very unsettling feeling. The biggest problem that I found with the site was that it was very distracting. I realize that advertisements are necessary in websites, but do they really have to flash? Lets just say that the advertisements are very effective in doing what they are supposed to do. They definitely catch my attention, pulling me away from the weather information. The weather.com website also lacks a heirarchy in the way the information is displayed. Most of the fonts are the same size, and mostly the same typeface. The site seems un-organized and un-planned, and I was confused as to where I would find the information I needed. There were also a lot of articles and extraneous information in the site. It made me wonder if I would really want to know about ski conditions or home and garden issues, if all I really wanted to know was whether to pack an umbrella or not. One of the things that I thought was effective about the site was the search line at the top of the page. However, if I was a first time user of the site I am not sure if I would notice it. All of the other information and advertisements around it tend to overpower it, and although it is a bright happy yellow it still does not stand out as much as I think it needs to. This also relates back to the abundance of cluttered information on the site. There is a lot of interesting and valuable konwledge to be gained from this page, and I'm sure that people would love to be able to kick back and enjoy the information on how humidity affects their homes. But, time is of the essence. So, bottom line, if you are a first-time user and you want to find the local forecast quickly, this is not the site for you. (I would suggest getting a weatherbug...)
posted by Mandy Overcash Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
The Weather.com page is in general too distracting to the viewer. First of all, the moving
banner draws the attention of the viewer's eye. This is what the people posting the banner want to do but I
think that it should go above the weather.com toolbar. It is still at the top of the page,
which the banner owner wants but the eye can leave that at the top and get to the information
below.
Secondly, there are too many boxes of text closely placed. From left to right, once the
viewer has gotten to the weather, there are other boxes for local options right beside it causing
the site to look cluttered.
Thirdly, there are too many different colors – backgrounds and text. Each ad and text
block are different in color, shape, and font – mostly because they are ads and each ad has
something different for their product.
Another thing is the way they position the daily weather. On the tv, both the weather
channel and the local news, the weather temperature is positioned horizontally. On the site it is
vertical which makes it harder to read because the viewer is used to it positioned horizontally.
One last thing is the banner for the site (WEATHER.COM) is not very obvious that this is
the weather channel site. It looks more like another advertising banner than a title. I think that if it
were taller and bolder it would stand out more.
Although I think this site is cluttered, I enjoy the fact that I do not have to sit in front of
the tv each morning waiting for the local weather to roll by.
posted by alexis bauman Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Weather.com portrays a great deal of information on one page, leaving little room for the eye to rest and refocus on something specific. Though it accomplishes the purpose, I believe it could be set up in a far less confusing manner consisting more of links to separate pages than actual information on the homepage. This would allow the same amount of info to be accessed, but would make for a more visually inviting page. Also, at this point, a great deal of the information on the page in vertically oriented. Possibly adding some horizontal elements would help to break up the space allowing easier readability for multiple topics. This breaking up of topics could be aided by a greater use of contrast in text and background colors with each segment of differing information. Since this is a weather page, it seems that the use of flashy current maps at the opening of the page would help to grab the attention of visitors, as well as vivid weather images according to the weather at hand for that particular area. Overall, the page accomplishes its purpose in a business-oriented fashion, but lacks the design to make it appealing to someone other than meteorologists.
posted by Amber Rich Tuesday, March 19, 2002
weather.com is pretty complicated. there is too much type and too many different type faces. it is good that they are atleast all one color for the most part. i do not understand the purpose for the sectioning off of the different areas and how or why that is done. for a nonfrequent user it might take them forever to find the actual weather, which is down below a swamp of text. the quick city/zip bar to find current weather is in an ideal spot for one to find the weather in a particular city up at the top left of the page. on top of all the mumble and jumble, there are advertisements that crowd and disrupt the space evenmore. the 20 years thing in the logo is difficult to read b/c i thought it said just 2 at first, then upon further contemplation i realized it was 20 years. the interactive media is cool and brings one's focus to the center of the page. there is sooo much information, links and things to do, it just seems a bit overwhelming. maybe more of this stuff should be behind the tabs at the top of the page, goodness, there's more behind these tabs, how much information can one website contain?
posted by jessica trigg Tuesday, March 19, 2002
i'm glad that there is such a thing as an "online weather channel". it is very useful and very practical. whenever i need to know the forecast, i can just go to weather.com and enter my city and i can see their predictions (whether they are correct or not is another story). their use of color is attractive, but i think there is too much going on on that one page. it makes it a little confusing and it forces me to search the page a little to find the information that i need. the page would be more successful if there were less graphics, less random text, less advertisements, and less information all cramed onto one page. they should use links etc to clean the page up. i think then it would be easier on the eyes and more user friendly; and if people are interested in more information that just the forecast, they can easily make use of that mouse and click on the links.
posted by mari-ann green Tuesday, March 19, 2002
The weather.com website to me is cluttered and hard to read. There are a lot of elements that are flashing and taking your attention from what one came to see. On arriving to the site it is hard to desifer from which section is the ad and which is the actual information that one came to see. Maybe the ads should be on the bottom half of the screen or should be in colors that do not over power the actual weather information. It is very distracting with the ads because they are more visually eye adverting than the actual contents dealing with the weather.
The type of the information concerning the weather links are not visually inticing in any way. The black on white format looks like a english paper, not a cutting edge weather channel website. They just do not grab ones attention. When one looks at the site, it seems that one would almost bypass the actual information that they were looking for because it is so bland. The small blue font is also not desirable for the fact that one has to sqint to look at it, that is not pleasing for the viewers. The font style and coloring as well as the background should really be thought over when it comes to this website.
If it wasnt for the weather channel's bland font and loud advertisements, then this would be a great spot to check the weather conditions of the day. Since it is rather mind numbing then one will most probable go to other sources for their daily weather buliton.
posted by Megan Casanega Tuesday, March 19, 2002
The website weather.com is great for finding out the weather anywhere in the world. However, when I first logged onto the site, I found it very cluttered and hard to read. There are so many ads it is difficult to figure out where the weather information is. The box with the weather report is not located at the top of the page, so people must scroll down the page to find it. Also the webpage is too wide for the screen, so in order to see the right side of the page one must scroll to the right. This becomes very time consuming. If the weather report was located at the top of the screen along with the box used to search for the weather report in other cities, it would be much easier to use.
posted by Lauren Paulson Tuesday, March 19, 2002
I think that WeATHER.com is very busy. I always find it hard to find my way around on websites that have a lot of things going on and a lot of typefaces. I think that the search feature is a great idea. It is very convenient and makes one not have to try to click on a lot of different menus and windows to find weather in one's location. I like how all the different subjects in the window at least have borders around them to separate each item of discussion.
I dislike all the flashing advertisements at the top of the webpage. It tends to draw one to those instead of the weather. It is neat that the weather, the high for the day, is listed in bold or even black lettering so it stands out.
It is at least organized and neat but I still think that it has way too many things going on to be on one webpage.
posted by Bethany Tucker Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by mari-ann green Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Megan Casanega Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by jessica trigg Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Lauren Paulson Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Bethany Tucker Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Amber Rich Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Michael Barrett Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Jennifer Cutchin Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Weather.com does a satisfying job of providing a detailed description and information as to what the weather will be like....but that's its job. It tells you the temperature, the humidity, the wind gust, and even allows you to set up your weather forecast format. The downside to this website is that so much information is crammed onto the page. It is difficult to find the most important information such as the current temperature. More important information needs to have priority of the page, because if not, you feel like you missed something in reading the page. Also, the advertising on the page is rather distracting. The first thing that catches your eye is an advertisement. The title bar is almost lost completely in the midst of advertising. Advertising needs to be placed at the side or the bottom and out of the way of the real reason you visited the site. Overall, there is no substance that ties the entire page together. There is no solid ground that states this weather.com. Connections need to be made. -MGM
posted by marissa marvelli Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Rob Ventura Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by alexis bauman Tuesday, March 19, 2002
posted by Michael Barrett Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Monday, March 18, 2002
Once you've signed up to this blog, you can login by clicking the blogger button below, or by going to the Blogger web site. Enter your username and password. Enter your WTDS response under "Post to WTDS" then click "Post & Publish" when you are finished. Click "view web page" to see your post. You can log back in to edit your posts at any time.
Remember, this is a web-based application. Any number of things can happen while you are using the Blogger. Servers can go down, you can lose your internet connection, the Blogger service may go down...So don't wait till the last minute to post.
It may not hurt to copy and paste your post into SimpleText or NotePad or whatever for safe keeping, until you know your response is safely published.
posted by Michael Barrett Monday, March 18, 2002
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Our first subject of critique will be the Weather Channel's local weather page for Greensboro.
posted by Michael Barrett Sunday, March 17, 2002
