Case Study: Weather Whiskers

Designing a weather app that’s “so easy a cat could use it”

Overview

I worked on a small team to establish the user experience, interface design, brand identity, and artwork for both of our iOS and Android apps.

Client:

Ask Applications

Role:

Art Director, UX Designer

Timeline:

9 months

Tools:

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, InVision, Balsamiq

weather whiskers

Challenge

Our goal was to make the experience “so easy a cat could use it”. Our users would need to be able to add and switch between cities, check the forecast, and share their weather on social media.

High Level Goal:

Provide accurate weather while delighting the audience

Scope:

Constraints:

Research

For our research, we tested over a dozen existing weather apps and studied best practice guides for Apple iOS and Android app interfaces. We developed user flows and developed low-fidelity mockups in HTML and CSS for User Testing.

weather whiskers user flow for Android

User Interface Design

As part of our design process we developed a style guide. Even though we had chosen a theme for the app, it was still important to establish a cohesive tone for language and visual design. A hallmark of our project was attention to detail. I developed a set of cat-themed icons for each weather condition. We also decided to use color to provide visual clues about the weather, because cats can’t read. I developed a color and icon guide that was affectionately titled The Purriodic Table.

weather whiskers style guide
weather whiskers purriodic table

Once the app was ready to release into the app stores, we also needed to develop marketing assets that could convey the tone of the app as both playful and credible.

weather whiskers ios app weather whiskers ios app weather whiskers ios app weather whiskers ios app

Content Creation

It was important to us to fill the app with high-quality art. Each image was crafted to tell a story, depict emotion, and hopefully amuse the user. In the first version of the app we released a litter of 16 cats. Additional themed Cat Packs were available for in-app purchases. One popular pack titled Meowsterpieces featured art-inspired weather scenes.

weather whiskers cat art weather whiskers cat art weather whiskers cat art weather whiskers cat art

Results

The Weather Whiskers app quickly gained popularity, received press, and earned a 4.5 star rating on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. It is no longer available for download.