Seamless Allergy Tracking: Enhancing Apple Weather for Sensitive Users

TIMELINE

  • August 2024 - October 2024

MY ROLL

  • Solo UX Design Masters Degree Project

SOFTWARE USED

  • Figma

  • Google Docs


OVERVIEW

Many people who use Apple products frequently view its built-in weather app. Apple's weather app has a variety of features and has offered more information with each update. However, it lacks specific information regarding allergy counts. Individuals looking for this information have to download additional apps or search websites for these counts. Taking these extra steps can be time-consuming and frustrating for users.

In this project, I wanted to elevate the experience of Apple’s weather app users dealing with allergies. Before diving into the app improvements, I focused on learning more about the weather app features and outdoor allergens. I then created two proto-personas, each with a unique story and user flow, to better understand the users I’m designing for and ensure user-centric decision-making. I outlined my goals for the features I wanted in the weather app. I knew I wanted to 1) Add allergy counts to the weather app home screen, 2) Display data for Pollen (Tree, Grass, Weed), Mold, and Dust & Dander, 3) Offer daily and weekly allergen views, 4) Show specific species data within each allergen type, 5) Let users set alerts for allergens when they reach a certain severity level, and 6) Add extra information about allergens

Next, I started working on reconstructing Apple’s design system and creating wireframes. I eventually created my first prototype and was ready to start usability tests. Through this project, I designed three functioning prototypes in Figma and conducted two rounds of usability testing with 5 users each time. In the end, I was able to analyze user feedback and iterate on my designs. You can view the final prototype or explore my Figma file!

The final prototype includes a new allergen count widget to the Apple Weather app home screen, a detailed breakdown of all five most popular outdoor allergen types with daily and weekly allergen breakdowns, a notification feature to create custom allergy alerts, custom text alerts, and detailed breakdowns showcasing these custom allergen alerts.


APPLE’S WEATHER APP

Apple’s weather app first became available in 2007 and started as a simple app to give users basic weather information. As time has passed, they have expanded on what information they offer. Now you can find detailed weather and atmospheric data. Apple has also started including relevant topics like moon phase information. The weather app is available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS Ventura, and watchOS. Users can view information based on their location or other locations they select to view. Apple pulls data from The Weather Channel to use in their app. The Weather Channel offers a variety of detailed data, including allergen information. This is useful as Apple can continue to utilize this source.


ALLERGEN RESEARCH

There are three primary types of allergens (5 total):

  1. Pollen (tree, grass, weed)

  2. Mold

  3. Dust & Dander

Each one can be broken down even further by specific species. For example, a specific species of tree pollen is maple tree pollen.

Allergen data is collected on a daily basis, so there is no hourly data. The amount of information also varies from town to town. Some cities collect more allergen data than others. 


PROTO-PERSONAS

Next, I created two personas and built out their story and flow to better understand the users I’m designing for and ensure user-centric decision-making.

On the left we have Rachel who is a busy, single mom of two children with severe allergies. She needs to be able to check daily and weekly allergen counts to keep her kids healthy. 

Meanwhile, Jeremy is a new college student who often forgets to check the allergy information so they would like a daily alert in the morning to let them know if they need to take medication before heading to class.

Their biggest issues deal with time and convenience. They have to navigate to multiple sites to get all the information they need.


GOALS

With a solid understanding of allergen data and my personas, I nailed down the features I wanted to add to Apple’s weather app. In my project, I want to:

  • Add allergy counts to the weather app home screen

  • Display data for Pollen (Tree, Grass, Weed), Mold, and Dust & Dander

  • Offer daily and weekly allergen views

  • Show specific species data within each allergen type

  • Let users set alerts for allergens when they reach a certain severity level

  • Add extra information about allergens


DESIGN SYSTEM

I then worked to recreate Apple’s design system for their weather app so I could ensure my designs aligned with the rest of the content. With this guideline created, I am ready to move forward with creating wireframes and prototypes for usability testing.

An interesting note here, Apple’s design system for their weather app does not pass multiple text and color contrast standards for accessibility. I assume this is because Apple has many built-in accessibility features that can adjust text size and colors. For the sake of this project, I followed Apple’s design system as it is currently built.


SKETCHES & WIREFRAMES

I sketched out some ideas for ways to display the allergen severity levels and a potential user flow. Once I got some ideas down, I was ready to start my first prototype for usability testing.


PROTOTYPE: VERSION 1 OF 3

As the user scrolls through the weather app, they will come across the new allergen section. Here, users can see the 5 common outdoor allergen types and their severity levels for today or a weekly view.

Users can click into the allergen types to get a specific species breakdown.

Here you can see tree pollen is selected in the daily view and we see various pollen levels for different tree species.

Weed pollen is selected in the weekly view and we can see the weekly breakdown of various weed species.

To set allergen alerts, users navigate to the weather app’s notification center. Here they will find an additional option for “Allergen Alerts”. There is a slider that allows users to set custom alerts for selected severity levels.

Here you can see some example inputs for the slider.

Once users set their custom allergen alerts they will receive a text notification whenever an alert matches their custom settings.


USABILITY TEST: ROUND 1 OF 2

This usability test looked at the clarity and usefulness of including an allergy count section to Apple’s weather app and a notification feature. Primarily, the navigation and understanding of the allergen information and the allergy alert process was analyzed. 

It was conducted on 5 users in a mixture of in-person and remote testing over Zoom. Each test took around 20 minutes to complete. Recordings and detailed notes were utilized to ensure all useful data was collected.

Learning Objectives:

  • Perceptions of the addition of allergen information

  • Comprehension of allergen information

  • Expectations of “daily” and “weekly” tabs and clickable pollen types

  • Users’ understanding of overall navigation and use

Research Description:

  • Research Approach - 20-minute 1:1 interviews

  • Research Participants - 5 individuals (4 with Apple products and 1 Android user)

  • Timing - interviews were conducted from September 20 through September 23, 2024

Top-level insights:

  • Insight 1: Improving the allergy alert notification process will minimize user confusion.

    • Confusing Alert Slider: Two users (Maddie, Kalina) had issues initially understanding the slider and thought the greyed circle on “extreme” meant that was preselected. Once they started clicking, they quickly realized how it worked.

    • Missing detailed information about allergy alerts: Two users (Maddie, Kalina) wanted more detailed information about the alerts. For example, explanations/restatements of how alerts will react to location changes.

    • Minimal Alert Customization: One user (Maddie) wanted more customization in the alert process, like recurring alerts for specific days/times to just know the levels for that day. Three users (Maddie, Kalina, Cameron) expected to be able to adjust the notifications for specific pollen species rather than just the general type.

  • Insight 2: Including more information about allergy types, species, and levels will help keep users more informed.

    • Missing detailed information on pollen/species meaning: Four users (Maddie, Kalina, Cameron, Priyanka) wanted to learn more about pollen types, their species, why certain species were being shown, and level information. Know more about why levels are the way they are (ex: seasonal) and how it impacts those with allergies.

    • Lack of customization options: One user (Kalina) wanted to be able to reorder and take out pollen species that they didn’t care about.

  • Insight 3: Ensuring the daily and weekly views are compact helps the efficiency of the experience for all users. 

    • The allergy count section is big and takes up space in the app: One user (Maddie) noted that those who are not interested in this information will have to scroll further down in the app to view the rest of the sections in the weather app.

Theme Topics:


PROTOTYPE: VERSION 2 OF 3

This testing noted issues in three primary areas: the allergy alert notification process, a lack of information about allergens, the the amount of space the allergen section takes on the home screen. 

Based on the feedback and painpoints I discovered during the first round of testing, I made a few updates to my prototype.

First I updated the allergen count widget on the weather app home screen so it took up less space while still displaying information on the 5 allergen types

The usability test showed that users wanted more information to dive into about the allergen counts. Now, users can click into the allergen count widget on the Weather home screen to see more detail about all the allergen types. 

You see that the “All” section opens first which gives a summary of all the general allergen types. You can see as we scroll through there are daily and weekly views, information about the allergy count, and a breakdown of severity levels and their meanings.

Here I am scrolling through the “Tree Pollen” section. Users have the ability to click into a specific type of allergen to view more. In this example I click on Tree pollen. In this view, users can see a daily and weekly breakdown, data for specific tree species, information about the allergen count, a section on seasonality and tree pollen types, and lastly the severity breakdown for tree pollen. The other allergen sections for grass, weed, mold, and dust & dander follow this same layout.

I spent some time updating the notification process based on the feedback that showed some users were confused with the slider. Since the slider gave some confusion to users, I decided to try out a selection design that is found in the Apple settings already.

For allergen notifications, users navigate to the weather app notifications center. But they will now see an additional section for the Allergy Alerts. Here they can set alerts for certain general allergen types or specific species and schedule them as well. Here I click into the Tree Pollen section set my custom alert.

Here I am scheduling my alert. There are options for users to receive relevant alerts on certain days and at specific times.

Once users set their custom allergen alerts, you can see two text alert examples that the user may receive for one allergen alert or multiple.


USABILITY TESTING: ROUND 2 OF 2

This usability test will assess how users perceive the updated prototype. I will be looking at how users feel about the changes, their comprehension of the allergen information, ability to schedule custom allergen alerts, and the overall navigation and use of the allergen features.

Similar to round one, it was conducted on 5 users in a mixture of in-person and remote testing over Zoom. Each test took around 20 minutes to complete. Recordings and detailed notes were utilized to ensure all useful data was collected.

Learning Objectives:

  • Perceptions of the addition of allergen information

  • Comprehension of allergen information

  • Expectations of allergen count features and notification settings

  • The usefulness of additional allergen information and daily/weekly views

  • Thoughts about allergen alerts and scheduled alerts

  • Users’ understanding of overall navigation and use

Research Description:

  • Research Approach - 20-minute 1:1 interviews

  • Research Participants - 5 individuals (4 with Apple products and 1 Android user)

  • Timing - interviews were conducted from October 3 through October 6, 2024

Top-level insights:

  • Insight 1: Improving the labeling on the average display dial on the home allergy count widget will improve browsing efficiency.

    • Nonspecific dial: Four users (Priyanka, Kalina, Maddie, Lisa) had hesitations about what the moderate dial in the allergen count widget in the weather app was representing. Users wondered if it was the average total amount (yes) or represented one of the allergen types (no). 

  • Insight 2: Completing and clarifying the usage of scheduled alerts will minimize user confusion.

    • Confusion about scheduled alert usage: Four users (Kalina, Cameron, Maddie, Lisa) wondered if the scheduled alerts meant that you would set a range on a given day and tell you what the allergen alert was during that timeframe. 

    • Incomplete time selection for scheduled alerts: Three users (Kalina, Cameron, Maddie) were curious about how the time worked for the scheduler. Initially thinking a range was selected, they wondered how picking a single time worked and what time alerts would come in originally. 

  • Insight 3: Ensuring the allergen alerts are efficiently displaying information will improve the efficacy of the feature.

    • Text alert notification content is not organized optimally: All users gave useful opinions and insight into their idea of an optimal text alert for the allergen notification. Some thought that less information was better and then click into the alert for more information, while others wanted as much detail as possible.

    • The user journey after selecting the allergen alert notification is undefined: I asked all the users how they were expecting to interact with the text alert and where clicking it would take them as I had not designed it yet and some users made it to this line of questioning before I had a chance to ask. Users expected to be taken to the detailed allergen count view in the weather app when clicking the allergen alert.

Theme Topics:


PROTOTYPE: VERSION 3 OF 3 (FINAL)

The second round of testing got lots of great feedback on the improvements I made. The primary findings from this round delt with clarifying and flushing out some of the concepts. This led me to my final prototype for the project.

You can explore the prototype on your own at the bottom of this section!

For the allergen count widget on the Weather home page, I added one piece of additional information to the dial on the left. Since users noted confusion about what it was representing, I added text below the severity level that says “total avg” to help users understand it is displaying the general total allergy level for the day.

The rest of the widget remains the same as the previous version. Users can see today’s severity level for 5 allergen types. It is compact while still giving a good overview of relevant allergen data.

Users can click into this widget to see…

…. a detailed breakdown. Users automatically open to a page that gives a summary of all the general allergen types. You can see as we scroll through there are daily and weekly views, information about the allergy count, and a breakdown of severity levels and their meanings.

Users have the ability to click on a specific type of allergen to view more. In this example, I click on Tree pollen.

In this view, users can see a daily and weekly breakdown, data for specific tree species, information about the allergen count, a section on seasonality and tree pollen types, and lastly the severity breakdown for tree pollen.

The other allergen sections for grass, weed, mold, and dust & dander follow this same layout.

For allergen notifications, users navigate to the weather app notifications center where they see an additional section for the Allergy Alerts. Here they can set alerts for certain general allergen types or specific species and schedule them as well.

In this example, I click into the Tree Pollen section to set my custom alert. I select alerts for general tree pollen and specific tree pollen species.

Here I am scheduling my alert. There are options for users to receive alerts on certain days and at specific times. By default, alerts will be delivered at 5:00 AM any day the alert is relevant.

However, users can adjust the day and time notifications are sent to them.

Once a user finishes setting their Allergy Alert(s) they will receive alerts according to their settings. Here you can see two example alerts.

The first shows the alert for one allergen.

The second shows what an alert for multiple allergens may look like.

When users select this alert it will take them into the Apple Weather app where they will see their allergy alert at the top. This is similar to how severe weather alerts sit in the app.

Users can click this in app alert to be taken directly to the allergy alert details. Users can also scroll down the allergy alert section and…

… see the same alert. Clicking the alert here (or on the Apple Weather app home screen) will take them to view the allergy alert details. Here they can view the detailed breakdown of their custom allergy alert.

INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

You can also view the Figma prototype in a new tab or view my Figma file for this project and explore my process and prototype development within Figma.


NEXT STEPS

For the next steps, I would like to do another round of usability testing with the new updates to assess the updates and further designs for the allergen alert breakdown view. Additionally, following Apple’s design system meant adhering to inaccessible color contrasts which I would like to improve as well as the text hierarchy in the allergen detailed breakdown. Lastly, I’d like to try out more menu navigation options in the detailed allergen view.

Overall, I had so much fun with this project and am very happy with where I am concluding.