MagTag Weather

Hardware Interface Design, Freelance Project

Hardware

The Adafruit Magtag

Team Members

1 UX designer, 1 Software Engineer

Data Source

National Weather Service

Overview

Daily attention on weathers are necessary for commuting preparation, outdoor activities, plans’ adjustment, hazard prevention, etc. Weather information panels are common to see in office buildings, shopping centers, they are less common for community use or household use, while they are beneficial to all people in different locations. The magnet is designed for weather information sharing. It’s easy to attach to anything magnetic like fridge and whiteboard.

Limitations & Solutions

Research Synthesis

1. Updated temperate and rain possibility
Add the most helpful numbers to help people tell the weather and decide outfits.
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2. Readability
Provide sufficient information in interface and make it easy to read
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3. Updated Weather Changing Tendency
The forecast of weather changing in following hours are useful to daily plan.
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4. Accessibility Improvement
Add reading button to broadcast weather information
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5. Weather alert with QR Code
Update weather alert from weather service and government. And QR codes can be scanned to view detail reports.
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6. Holiday decoration
customized decoration icons for Christmas, Halloween, etc
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7. Sound and Vibration Design
Catch attention for important weather change.
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8.Lightning Design
Code lighting display according to timing and information.
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9. Calendar Updated
important item between date and weather information.
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10. Solar Panel Installation
Decrease charging frequency with solar panels.

Initial Design Concept

Next Steps

1. Add alert icons to update weather alert information
2. Holiday decoration icons for Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
3. Divide weather images to small elements to release device storage
4. Add important personal events like birthdays
5. Usability test

Takeaways

1. It’s always a good time to run a test 
Running tests at every step of design can help to save a lot of time by identifying problems displaying.

2. Python is a suitable language for simple embedded projects
Writing python can be much quicker than writing C code. This project made it clear that python is also quite suitable for a large variety of embedded projects as well.

MagTag Weather

Before & After

Persona

Limitations & Solutions

Research Synthesis

Initial Design Concept

Iteration

Deliverable Version