Overview
Problems: “Where’s the weather?”
The irony of the old weather.com homepage was that it didn’t prioritize weather. Instead, users were greeted by a long scroll of lifestyle articles, videos, and promotional content, with the actual forecast buried below the fold.
Working closely with our design lead and UX researcher, I helped uncover several systemic problems:
Weather was hard to find.
The homepage emphasized editorial content, which frustrated users seeking quick weather insights.
Redundant Navigation
Pages like “My Dashboard,” “Today,” and local weather views often duplicated each other, causing confusion.
Vague or Confusing Labels
Links like "Atmosphere Reviews" or "World Satellite" lacked clarity. Tree testing showed <35% success rates under the "Lifestyle" section.
Important Features were buried.
Key links were hidden under a hamburger menu, even on desktop. Less than 1% of users opened it, meaning that valuable tools like the Air Quality Index, Allergy Tracker, and Cold & Flu Tracker often went undiscovered.
Research & insights
Together with the UX researcher, I led a multi-method sprint to validate our hypotheses:
Content Audit
3 of 5 top nav items led to the same landing page
Tree Testing
Links under "Lifestyle" had 61% failure rate in tree testing
Session Replays
Only 8% of users located Hurricane Central in under 30 seconds
Label misunderstanding was a major contributor to rage clicks
Analytics
Desktop hamburger menu had <1% open rate
Users didn’t want more features. They wanted fewer, clearer choices that led directly to relevant weather information.
Design Strategy
To simplify and focus the experience, I proposed a bold solution to our design lead:
Retire the legacy homepage and promote the “Today” page to default.
This shift was guided by human-centered design and decision flow theory, we observed that the “Today” page already supported short-term planning behaviors better than any other view. Instead of scattering features across multiple entry points, we collapsed those pathways into a focused, context-aware hub.
Why “Today”?
Forecast-first
Focus on hourly, daily, and radar at the top
Location-aware
Auto-detect or default to saved cities
Modular
Scalable layout with expandable alert
Clean hierarchy
3-zone structure (Conditions → Forecast → Context)
Design Execution
I worked closely with our design lead to implement a more intuitive and responsive navigation system that reduced friction and surfaced critical weather tools.
Reorganizing for Urgency
We consolidated scattered pages like "Hurricane Central" and "Tornado Central" under a newly created Severe Weather section. This reduced the number of steps required during high-stress scenarios and aligned with user mental models.
Fixing Visibility Issues
Less than 1% of desktop users opened the hamburger menu, even though it contained health and lifestyle forecasts many users actively searched for. With plenty of screen real estate available, we moved these items into the persistent left nav to improve visibility.
User Feedback
"I know exactly where to click."
"Feels like a reliable weather tool now."
"Love that Health and Allergy info is actually findable now."
Reflection
This wasn’t just a visual refresh. It was a design reframing.
Working with the design lead and UX researcher, I helped move us from feature bloat to user clarity, from editorial sprawl to contextual weather hierarchy.
We applied human factors engineering to reduce cognitive strain, support faster decision-making, and increase cross-device consistency. From simplifying IA to restructuring the nav and labeling based on user behavior and mental models, every decision aimed to support recognition, reduce friction, and build trust, especially when the forecast matters most.
Project information
Year
2025
Services
Infomation Architecture
UX Design
Visual Design
More work
