Reactive wins award for Bureau of Meteorology site at Australian Mobile and App Design Awards

Australian digital agency, Reactive has received a prestigious award for its design work by the Australian Mobile and App 2014 Design Awards in the Weather Category for the Bureau of Meteorology’s new Mobile Site – m.bom.gov.au.

Reactive’s brief was to simplify weather information available on the Bureau desktop site, and make it easier for people to access on-the-move with a specific Mobile site. The design challenge was to meet the immediate weather needs of the Mobile user.

Insights from market research and design found that a “full weather snapshot” was the focus of mobile visitors, to make practical decisions.

In early 2014, mobile visitors to the Bureau website exceeded desktop visitors.

The winning redesign of the Bureau’s much-trafficked weather snapshot followed the Bureau’s extensive research and insights into smart phone use over a two year period, as well as the native applications being used to receive up-to-date weather data.

Users of the new Mobile Site can view weather based on their current location or favourite location. Users can see current weather, 24 hour forecast, radar information and warnings.

Says Beth Walsh, Reactive associate creative director based in Melbourne: “Through user testing, we were able to understand what the average user really wanted; priority information and discreet detail on an app-like interface. We used friendly display icons and designed the interface to focus on the précis and current temperature first, supported by the min and max temperatures and more detailed weather stats.”

Visual research was conducted on competitor sites, best practice weather apps, and app experience design.

Says Walsh: “Together with the Bureau, we wanted to provide an app-like experience for users. The Bureau provides weather information for a breadth of target audiences. We saw a gap in the weather app market to provide an accurate weather snapshot for locations right across Australia, something that would differentiate this design from other weather providers and even the Bureau’s usual layout.”

Creative was provided by Reactive, user testing by U1 Group and technical development by the Bureau. The Weather Category relates to applications themed around informing users on the weather. It includes general weather applications as well as specifics such as surf/snow reports and tools such as barometers.