Background
Weather Underground has always been a forerunner in bringing data from individuals personal devices to the general public through our Personal Weather Station Network, this created hyper-local forecasts and weather conditions for neighborhoods. At Weather Underground I was given the task to use what we’re good at and start bringing the important data of Air Quality to our customers on a hyper-local area.
Weather Underground, Weather Company,IBM
Roles: UX/UI Lead, Map Designer
Project Type: Collaborative
Live: Weather Underground Air Quality & Health
Problem
Air Quality forecasts are available through AirNow, which is a government run program through the EPA. These sensors are incredibly important to help government know when to warn it’s citizens of dangerous events. However these sensors are expensive and are far between because they depend on government funding. With the current political environment, Weather Underground partnered with PurpleAir to create a supplemental air quality network.
Overall AQ data is widely misunderstood, there are AQI (Air Quality Index) of different time periods which are combinations of 7 pollutants collected over different time intervals, and PM (Particulate Matter) and varying degrees of that.
Testing/Interviews
For testing I partnered with the Vallejo Clean Air group in Vallejo, CA in Solano County. This is a grassroots organization of citizens who have voiced concern about the industrial factories to the west of the city and how it affects the citizens. Solano Country has a diagnosed asthma rate of 25% which is the highest in California. Through testing and interviews with the group we focused on how this city could be an example of our Air Quality program throughout the United States.
In addition to the partnership with Vallejo Clean Air, I also conducted many interviews with a range of individuals to see what their concern with air quality. I interviewed a General Practitioner with elderly patients, an individual with a lung transplant after suffering from Cystic Fibrosis, a young person with asthma, a parent, as well as people on the street in San Francisco.
We found that many individuals were interested in learning more about air quality, but didn’t understand how it could affect them. We found in additional to worry about smog, that forest fire smoke was a very great concern that affected many groups of individuals.
Wireframes/ITERATION
Most of my time focused on mapping Air Quality (AQ) stations as well as how other countries categorize their air quality. Much time was spent taking wireframes to “finished looking mockups” Although not normal ways of working, to ensure support from IBM and additional stakeholders we repeatedly presented ideas as to where the product could go over time and how it would fit into the Watson environment.
Many Data visualizations on mapping and data points were explored.
Design
We began with designing a responsive page that would be accessed through the city forecast page. As well as creating more connections throughout the site. As part of the design we had to add a lot of education around the data and it’s importance. Many people during testing didn’t understand what good or moderate meant, so having quick glance illustration and color systems helps users quickly gauge meanings, as well as designing a deeper dive of information for the user. I also designed cards for other country AQ data points.
I decided to create an interactive map to show how many AQ stations there are in the US along with the current AQ reading. This is to show the public how sparse the monitors are and how many times there is only one per county, which leaves many people without reliable data. We wanted to encourage more people becoming citizen scientists and supplementing the AirNow data, if there is more stations reporting than the public will be able to get more legislation to pass that will protect the atmosphere and their lungs.
Cross Product and Platform
In addition to design the Health Page for the forecast section of the site, we also worked on future facing designs for integration into our Wundermap, Android and iOS Flagship apps, forecast pages, and planned on it’s own standalone Air Quality page.
Release and Learning
The use of the Air Quality page grew quickly within the first release, which pushed for Weather.com and all the Weather apps to add this network and feature to their platforms. The partnership with PurpleAir led to an increase of 6000+ small AQ PM2.5 and PM10 sensors to supplement the then AirNow’s 1500PM stations and the network continues to grow.
Weather Underground.com increased traffic to our Health page by over 300%
Air Quality articles by founder Jeff Masters become most discussed on platform. WU the first platform showing both raw PurpleAir PM data and AirNow AQI data.
Fresh Air Vallejo
Have helped use data to push back on the Orcem/VMT cement project and being reassessed. And in 2020 it was voted that the cement plant would not be built.
Used the air network to help close daycares and schools this past week for health reasons using PM data.
In the Flagship iOS and Android apps, AQ notifications were added because of the demand
