Show HN: Sundial – a new way to look at a weather forecast

(sundial.page)

60 points | by izaidi 3 days ago ago

25 comments

  • Finnoid 3 days ago

    Very neat! I like that I get a better “feel” of the whole day’s weather from the ring than most weather apps.

    But it takes a bit more thinking and interaction to understand how the weather develops. For example, I like to see how the temperature changes during the day and for that, I find a graph illustrates the hourly changes better than just numbers and colors, but the information is obviously available here too. Just requires but more thinking from the user.

    Are you thinking adding other things like humidity and wind? If so, would you try to fit more information to the dial or add some popups or something else?

  • Unai 2 days ago

    Pretty cool idea and execution. This is the first weather app I can see myself using instead of whatever my phone or google puts in front of me; but I often need more data, mostly humidity and wind speed and direction. Also rain seems to be a boolean, but precipitation percentages would be much more clear.

    Having both the dial and the more common horizontal table / graph would make it the perfect weather app for me. Maybe those could be integrated into the dial, like wavy rings?

    In any case, nicely done!

  • kozi93 11 hours ago

    I love the design. Tried putting in my postcode and it got stuck in a loop, but worked after a refresh :)

  • SkyGuard_Lead a day ago

    You nailed it with this! It is all dialed in (pun intended) and all elements display beautifully and in a natural way. Very well done!

  • bdbdbdb 2 days ago

    I absolutely love this, it's beautiful. Kudos for the truly original ideas here in the UI. I love to see radial design patterns - everything is boring grids and rows and columns

  • kseistrup 2 days ago

    I like the design end the concept. I would like to be able to choose 24h times, though – we don't use am/pm around here.

  • leawi a day ago

    I love this! Both creative and practical, in my opinion. Perhaps additional information (humidity, UV levels, etc.) could be optionally added as additional color-coded rings with numbers, like the temperature?

  • world2vec 2 days ago

    Very pretty. Would be cool if the Moon followed the real Moon phases (if the sky is clear enough to see it). For example April 2nd is full moon and the sky is clear so the Moon in your Sundial should be full too.

  • cousinbryce 2 days ago

    This is great. Showing only even hours would be less text, maybe as an option. As I’m looking at it to plan late night activities it shows this mornings forecast where I kind of expect tomorrow’s. Maybe make a continual S curve that can be scrolled by touch? Maybe less elegant, maybe more?

  • thiscaspar 2 days ago

    Bookmarked, such a refreshing view at the weather.

    For me, this simple version is enough 80% of the time, if i ever need more details i'll find the usual sources.

  • hbcondo714 2 days ago

    Nice! Great use of the mouse's scroll wheel to rotate the dial.

  • PayToExist a day ago

    This is beautiful! This would be great as widget or an app. Add 24h time for us non americans ;)

  • tzs 2 days ago

    Interesting. Looks like it is not taking into account DST in the US. The time shown for Seattle and New York for example is the non-DST time.

  • as1as 2 days ago

    That's a great design, I don't think the sunset time is accurate, do you have any plans to apply it?

  • DanDeBugger 3 days ago

    Very cool and sick. Visually awesome and creative. Though the practicality of this spinning thing I wonder vs just the weather app.

  • 1attice 2 days ago

    I love this, thanks! Using it reminds me of iPod, what with the rotary navigation of time

  • kraftaa 2 days ago

    neat! and very visual, easier to see the weather by time, would love if such widget would be available for the mobile devices.

  • david1-618 3 days ago

    This is fun to look at.

  • allears 3 days ago

    Nice display, but the forecast doesn't agree with NOAA.

    • izaidi 3 days ago

      The data's from Google (via their new WeatherNext 2 model) -- as I understand it they get their raw data from NOAA/NWS but their forecasting model is different. I'll see about using the NWS API for US locations.

  • iJohnDoe a day ago

    Surprisingly cool. Didn't know what to expect.

  • adammarples 2 days ago

    Dates would be nice I got lost

  • fanioz 2 days ago

    very nice and immersive

  • manishfoodtechs 2 days ago

    In one word: WONDERFUL