I documented it with screenshots here
https://www.euroga.org/forums/hangar-talk/3281-windy-com-an-amazing-wind-and-weather-visualisation-site/post/365859#365859
On a PC or laptop, you have a big screen so there is no need to go down multiple levels to show something like cloud base!
The old UI was fine.
One needs to understand the IQ of the client base.
The more intelligent users, the more use desktop. Lowest IQ users are nearly 100% mobile. I run one site which is all private pilots and thus IQ significantly above average (cannot get a PPL if you are stupid) and from analytics and server data we have 50% mobile users. So both have to be catered for.
Good desktop functionality also attracts more intelligent users.
Windy is a lot more difficult to use now. I used to have
medium cloud
low cloud
cloudbase
cloud tops
rain and thunder
wind
all on one menu. Not I can't get rain & thunder at all, to stick.
@Suty Yes someone pointed that out to me. But it is an unnecessary extra level. On a PC, you have plenty of screen area to see the RH menu.
A desktop presentation should allow a relatively flat and rich UI, not multiple levels of config as one has to do on a mobile device.
It does depend on the "expert/novice" level of the users, obviously, and the tendency is to go for the latter. But I would suggest most Windy users are definitely in the former camp, using Windy on desktops at home or office.
Windy will have the audience data; whether they will confirm or not might be interesting.
The last windy.com update has cleared most of the mappings between altitude and colour.
Maybe this was done for users who are sailing boats and don't need altitude data, but aviation users do need that data, in lots of steps. It used to be like that but somebody went in there and cleared the tables for cloudbase and cloud tops.
For cloudbase, one needs steps of about 200ft from 0 to 2000ft, then in say 500ft steps to 5000ft, then 1000ft steps up to 35000ft.
For cloud tops, one needs steps of about 500ft up to 5000ft and then 1000ft steps up to 35000ft.
It used to be something like that.
As the EuroGA.org thread shows, some expert users have produced their own mapping tables, but this is complicated.
Isn't Meteoblue just GFS? The big plus of Windy is ECMWF and the other models.
The last windy.com update has cleared most of the mappings between altitude and colour.
Maybe this was done for users who are sailing boats and don't need altitude data, but aviation users do need that data, in lots of steps. It used to be like that but somebody went in there and cleared the tables for cloudbase and cloud tops.
For cloudbase, one needs steps of about 200ft from 0 to 2000ft, then in say 500ft steps to 5000ft, then 1000ft steps up to 35000ft.
For cloud tops, one needs steps of about 500ft up to 5000ft and then 1000ft steps up to 35000ft.
It used to be something like that.
As the EuroGA.org thread shows, some expert users have produced their own mapping tables, but this is complicated.
@idefix37 See the URL I posted.
@idefix37 Yes someone on EuroGA pointed out that one can customise it. But it was OK before the latest UI change, so why was the mapping broken? It is a great deal of work to set up a transfer function for every layer one might want to use.
Look at e.g. 19th April 1200, S. Germany. It is all one colour, almost. Also the rain layer shows rain where the cloud base is showing 14000ft, which is nonsense.
A desktop presentation should allow a relatively flat and rich UI, not multiple levels of config as one has to do on a mobile device.
It does depend on the "expert/novice" level of the users, obviously, and the tendency is to go for the latter. But I would suggest most Windy users are definitely in the former camp, using Windy on desktops at home or office.
Windy will have the audience data; whether they will confirm or not might be interesting.
One needs to understand the IQ of the client base.
The more intelligent users, the more use desktop. Lowest IQ users are nearly 100% mobile. I run one site which is all private pilots and thus IQ significantly above average (cannot get a PPL if you are stupid) and from analytics and server data we have 50% mobile users. So both have to be catered for.
Good desktop functionality also attracts more intelligent users.
Windy is a lot more difficult to use now. I used to have
medium cloud
low cloud
cloudbase
cloud tops
rain and thunder
wind
all on one menu. Not I can't get rain & thunder at all, to stick.
@Suty Yes someone pointed that out to me. But it is an unnecessary extra level. On a PC, you have plenty of screen area to see the RH menu.
I documented it with screenshots here
https://www.euroga.org/forums/hangar-talk/3281-windy-com-an-amazing-wind-and-weather-visualisation-site/post/365859#365859
On a PC or laptop, you have a big screen so there is no need to go down multiple levels to show something like cloud base!
The old UI was fine.