I’ve really enjoyed using windy and have for years now as a professional pilot alongside several other planning resources. Windy shares a lot of very useful data that isn’t presented as intuitively from other providers. I’ve even sold my dad on the product!
I was surprised that it was free for the level of quality and was ready to buy the premium membership. As of now, I’m disappointed that the team has felt the need to make such sweeping changes that reduce the user experience with seemingly little consideration for their user base. The recent update has made the mobile application very clunky to use, messy in its appearance and unfortunately, may no longer suit my needs because of this.
The fixed weather picker is counterintuitive and makes comparing weather across large areas difficult. The crosshairs is hidden behind the layer menu, making winds aloft hard to comprehend. I can’t compare winds in Cheyanne to those in Helena with changes in time and altitude. This now requires several clicks and requires my full attention.
Selecting a city and having the map center to that location is disorientating where the old cursor’s mobility didn’t present that problem.
Having the simple Daily Forecast right on top of the 3-hour forecast is a redundant waste of very valuable space.
Moving the information to the top of the screen and away from the crosshairs takes your attention back and forth between ‘move the map-go check the data-move the map-go check data.’
Sometimes if the map is moved again before the data can load, it’ll skip back to the previous location. If you’ve used a touch screen before; you know that large, accurate moves are nearly impossible.
Having a map available without the cursor was nice, waiting for the cursor to go away every time I adjust the map complicates the UI.
The old UI’s layer list was simple and organized while the new format requires scanning through the grid to find the right layer-expand the layers list-scan the grid some more. Often my use case involves cross-checking 2-3 layers while comparing to other apps and onboard data. Windy now commands my nearly full attention as I navigate the app.
Restricting window management to the “X” icon is unintuitive as the icon moves around depending on the window and sometimes doesn’t click if I can’t hit it exactly. I waste time looking for the X and man-handling my iPad, chasing it around the UI. Tapping the map to close a menu was an easier, more natural motion.
A helpful tool for me would be information for thunderstorm cell tops and cell movement prediction based on live radar/satellite data.
I’m disappointed that a majority of Administrator @Ondřej-Šutera ‘s responses are in the attitude of “This is great and you just need to learn how it works”
“Show me, you don’t know what you’re talking about”
Most people don’t appreciate being talked down-to and discredited.
This seems to be the only response on the part of the Windy Team. Some others have shown frustration with this as well. Please don’t approach my feedback the same way.
Keep in mind, these are only my personal complaints, based on my specific use case. Others have presented very good criticisms based on theirs. We’ve all chose Windy because of how well it worked for what we needed. Nobody’s here because Windy didn’t work for them.
It appears Windy wants to market itself as a semi-professional tool, and is treated as such by myself and many others. Despite the intent, this update is a step in the opposite direction.
I won’t continue using Windy in its current form and I don’t see a reason to pay for it as such. I’ll be searching for a competitor if the team shows that this is the direction it will be moving in the future while openly alienating their most loyal users.