Test Page for New Radar Colour Scheme

MetEireann

Dear Boards

We have taken on board a lot of comments regarding the colour scheme of our radar page and are testing a new one for both the main website and the app. It is available here and we'd appreciate your views regarding usability and clarity. (For comparison's sake, the current one is here.) The images are also shown together below.

Is it easier or more difficult to read? Do the colours look better?

Just to be clear, the data and the values are the same. Just the colour scheme has changed.

If you don't mind, please keep comments on the topic of the colour scheme - if you have queries or comments on other matters you can send them directly to customer.liaison@met.ie

Many Thanks

my3cents

I have that page open almost all the time and agree the colour progression for rate of rain fall isn't perfect at present but I'm not sure the new one is much better.

The problem for me with the new one or any of the schemes is the sudden change to yellow after the darkest blue. If anything I'd reverse the new schemes 6mm to 32mm so yellow is at 32mm and purple at 6mm.

hytrogen

Nice improvement, less threatening at 0.5mm/h
Maybe a little too many blues in the spectrum to define in patchy areas at 3 / 4mm, perhaps include 1 shade of green there before yellow?
Thanks for being progressive!

Reckless Abandonment

The colour change looks a bit drastic blue straight in to yellow. I'd agree with my3 on swapping them around

talkabout

Looks well, and personally i feel its a good improvement. Don't have any issue with going from blue straight to yellow, actually think it works well.

maquiladora

I think I prefer the older one a bit better. The range of colours from 1.5 to 6 are a bit too similar.

ronnie3585

I prefer the older version too. The progression of colours on the new version have too many shades of blue, the differentiton between intensity isn't as easily recognisable.

Thanks for asking

Meteorite58

I think the older version is better ( but I think it might be better in the older one to reverse the first four measurements from the 0.1 to 1 mm so that the lightest colour would indicate the lightest rainfall and 1mm to match the dark blue colour which I think most people would identify with a recognizable amount of rainfall ).

An important point I think is that the background colour of Ireland should possibly change from green to a more neutral colour thus helping the colours to stand out more and I think it would help enormously if the radar map could be seen in a larger format which would help differentiate the rainfall amounts ( now if you also put in the counties and towns that would top it off all together )

Thanks Met Eireann

Alexis Sanchez

Any chance of a zoom in and out option?

Hooter23

Older one is better i think

Xenji

I would still stay with the older version as well.

Oneiric 3

I like it. Nice clean modern colour spectrum that is easeir to read and easy on the eye. Makes the original colour spectrum look quite messy and archaic in comparison.

Lumi

The colour gradation from 0.1 - 6mm is not distinct enough, there's far too much blue making it difficult to differentiate between them.
The older version is better.

my3cents

I think we need some help from MetEireann here as to the perceived effects on the ground of the different amounts of rain fall.

For example I know on the old scale if we are in a yellow area we were getting what seemed like a lot of rain, anything in the blue scale wasn't (just another "soft day").

If the colour scale is are going to be changed then the best place to make the changes on the scale would be at the points that (most) people notice a physical difference in the amount of rain fall.

Iancar29

I agree with others <6mm are all too similar colours . Prefer the older version too.

MetEireann

Great feedback everyone - thanks.

my3cents wrote: »

I think we need some help from MetEireann here as to the perceived effects on the ground of the different amounts of rain fall.

For example I know on the old scale if we are in a yellow area we were getting what seemed like a lot of rain, anything in the blue scale wasn't (just another "soft day").

If the colour scale is are going to be changed then the best place to make the changes on the scale would be at the points that (most) people notice a physical difference in the amount of rain fall.

For synoptic weather reports the definitions are:
<0.5mm/hr - light rain
0.5 to 4.0 mm/hr - intermediate rain
>4.0mm/hr - heavy rain

Storm 10

Agree about the blue scale, seems such a jump from blue to yellow. why did you not stick with the red as the heaviest rainfall rather than the brown and purple, the red for me is the real sit up and take notice colour.

my3cents

I think it depends how peoples "minds eye" interpret the Colour Scheme.

I see the map in three ways one is an overall flow of the graduations so colours like yellow jump out when they are only in the middle of the scale.

The other is trying to work out the current rate over my area (or any area of interest) in which case big variations of colour are better

Then finally I'm looking to see what is likely to be happening over my area in the future and in that case the yellow is the colour thats both a help and a hinderance. Its very easy to see the yellow on the map so if the rate of fall necessitates the use of yellow then I start following what the yellow is doing even though other colours may indicate a much higher rain fall.

Given this information:

For synoptic weather reports the definitions are:
<0.5mm/hr - light rain
0.5 to 4.0 mm/hr - intermediate rain
>4.0mm/hr - heavy rain

I can see a good reason for having yellow in the old position of 4mm/hr and while I think it looks better less reason for using all the blue shades for <5mm up to 6mm/hr.

So how do you go about getting a graduation of colour that has three obvious changes without making it so obvious that you loose the over all effect.

Or do you just not bother with trying to graduate the colour with the rate of fall and just use random spot colours?

Radical suggestion, do both. I can't be that difficult to programmaticaly have two schemes. One scheme using just blue for everything very pale to dark then if anyone wants to pick out the actual rainfall in an area they press a button which changes the colours which are picked to be contrasts beside each other so you can easily pick out the rate in a particular area.

/awaits being shot down....

Storm 10

We just had a pretty heavy shower in Galway in the past few minutes, the old colour chart shows it up very well with a hint of red, however looking at the new colour chart it does not appear to be heavy rain as there is no sign of red in it to anyone looking at it they would say a light shower.

ch750536

gah

Trogdor

I prefer the new version, I think the blue progression for the lighter rain is much easier on the eye. However, I think the blues progress too far up the scale, perhaps it should only be blue up to 3 or 4 mm/hr. The jump from blue to yellow is fine and provides an easy way to identify the heavier rain against the lighter blues. I would prefer to see the colour change at the 3 or 4 mm/hr mark though.
A combination of the new version from 0 mm/hr to 3 mm/hr and the old version from 3 mm/hr upwards could be nice.

FWVT

I prefer the older older version. Much better definition

PukkaStukka

Three things:

Firstly as someone who is outdoor a lot, I prefer the older one as it allows a more precise understanding in advance of how heavy any incoming rain is.

Secondly, is it possible to give an overlay of sFerics detected in the previous 60 minutes? I appreciate this might be well outside the scope of this update but it would be very nice to have further down the road.

Thirdly: Met Eireann are to be commended for seeking feedback in such an open way, and all credit to you for doing so and I'm glad to see the feedback given here is equally as constructive.

MetEireann

Thanks everyone for the great feedback - it's been really useful. We updated the test page based on your comments.

• The number of blue variants is reduced from 8 to 5 and the lower scale is reduced
• Yellow now comes in at 4mm
• 16mm and 24mm replaced with 20mm
• Maps, legend and chart updated to illustrate

See screenshot below.

maquiladora

That updated version looks good now. Thanks for listening to the feedback!

FWVT

Could you take out the lakes as they are confusing things with their shade of blue? Also make the green of Ireland a very pale shade or even white so that the contrast between the blues and it can be maximised? Also, any chance of having a radar archive, like you do for the sferics?

That is all...

my3cents

The newest update covers all the bases for me.

tricky D

The old version is much better, not just in general but especially for colourblind users who make up 5-10% of your users. More colour contrast is your users' friend and the existing version has it in spades.

Why are you fixing this? Is it really broken in the first place? /wondering

Harps

I prefer the light to dark blue progression on the new one, makes more sense and its easier on the eye than having dark blue as the lightest rain.

I'd echo comments about the map of Ireland as well, make it a more neutral colour and the rain will stand out better.

A more interactive map would also be nice, something badly missing is the ability to zoom, I know resolution will stay the same but it still works well on the likes of netweather and raintoday. Likewise a sferics overlay

highdef

Liking the latest variant too but also agree with Harps in that it would be great if there was an ability to zoom in.

my3cents

highdef wrote: »

Liking the latest variant too but also agree with Harps in that it would be great if there was an ability to zoom in.

Is it accurate enough to have a zoom feature? We are out near the edge of it so expect reduced accuracy and it regularly shows it no rain when its raining here.

maquiladora

my3cents wrote: »

Is it accurate enough to have a zoom feature? We are out near the edge of it so expect reduced accuracy and it regularly shows it no rain when its raining here.

Netweather, Raintoday etc. have zoom functionality with the same radar data, but obviously it gets quite pixilated after a couple of zooms!

Storm 10

Way better now I like it especially as you can now see the red for heavy rain much clearer, well done

Tae laidir

I prefer the new colour scheme.
Any chance of including radar data from the UK Met Office station at Castor Bay near Lurgan, as the UK Met Office use data from Met Éireann sites in Dublin & Shannon on their Radar maps?
The quality of data in the Northwest is really quite poor.
Thanks

sdanseo

I like the new colours, much easier on the eye.

And as an aside, as regards both asking for and acting on feedback - this is how every government agency should be run. A stellar example of excellent interaction. (Not that every quango should have a boards account to do same but hey, it wouldn't hurt )

axe2grind

The later version of the test page is much better than the first version, but I still prefer the current offering with the blue going to green to yellow. However this for me is the most important comment on this thread

tricky D wrote: »

The old version is much better, not just in general but especially for colourblind users who make up 5-10% of your users. More colour contrast is your users' friend and the existing version has it in spades.

Whatever you settle on has to suit everyone. I'm not colourblind (my son is), but I'm quite happy to accept a version which may not be my first preference if it means its usable for those less blessed in their sight.

And I'm another who appreciates the interactive feedback.

ronnie3585

I think the updated version is an improvement on the first one, but I still prefer the original.

I don't really see the benefit of changing the colour scheme. As it stands it works very well. I like that the current colour scheme gives me an immediate snapshot of what's going on and what's coming in terms of intensity and volume. I do a lot of outdoor activities and find it particularly useful.

If it ain't broke...

Lumi

I still prefer the older version. There is not enough gradation in the new scale under consideration and it does not give a clear overview of rainfall intensity.
You should also take into account the comments made above about the shading of land and lakes because the current layout does not provide enough contrast.
This is really apparent when you compare it with, for example Netweather's offering.
Both screenshots taken at 11:00am - apologies for the quality, I'm on my phone & this was just cobbled together but you get the gist of what I'm saying

Oneiric 3

I have no problem with the lakes being included on the map as living near one of them, it gives me a good sense of scale of where I am specifically located on the map. I don't think it confuses things at all. If that is the case, then getting rid of the sea on the radar map would have to be an option as well. However, looking at the latest radar of those blue scale showers over sea, they still show up nicely and despite using the blue scale, the blues don't clash with the darker blue of the sea at all.

The white background used on the NW map I find too harsh on my eyes. I like the blue and green map used by M.E. It is simple, soft on the eye and compared to third party radar maps, much more aesthetically pleasing.

It would be great if you could include radar data from Caster Bay as Tee Ladier suggested above as much of the north and northwest is not covered well at all. Even here locally (NE Galway), the radar more often than not underestimates the rainfall intensity which I think is due to Shannon radar not covering the area well. It is only when the radar returns reach the Galway/Roscommon border that they start showing up as dark reds etc when rainfall is particularly heavy. I think including the Caster Bay radar would help rectify not only this but better coverage for the N & NW overall.

axe2grind

Here's what I'd like you to try. Keeping the top part of new version from 4mm. For the lower part I'd like the current(old) 0-3mm (blues and green), but with the bottom 4 blues flipped over, so the lightest rain is light blue getting darker blue till green starts at 2mm.

Supercell

The updated version with yellows coming in a little later gets my vote, a zoomable map like on raintoday.co.uk or on netweather.tv would be a really nice feature too, especially on showery days.
A future feature request would be precip type colour schemes as well (ala netweather.tv and metcheck.com), very useful in winter for the annual will it or won't it snow in my back garden frenzy.

cherryghost

As someone who is colourblind, the older radar is preferable to me and easier to read.


EDIT: I guess I should point out my greiveances with the new one. The blue shades all just blend in for me. The older radar is varied enough for me to notice the difference between light and light-med rainfall.

tricky D

The blues all look pretty much the same to me too with poor contrast.

Also and importantly, it's not just colourblind users, there's about the same percentage again, if not more, who have eyesight difficulties who may be adversely affected.

The site is poor enough for accessibility as it is and there's no accessibility policy stated on the site. Something you need to look at imho.

MetEireann

tricky D wrote: »

The site is poor enough for accessibility as it is and there's no accessibility policy stated on the site. Something you need to look at imho.

Yes. We plan to redesign the website next year and accessibility will be given greater priority.

pauldry

Lumi I agree

THe map is the problem not the rain

Make map a lot lighter in shading

Rain colour is great on new scheme.

Also hope rain coming from nw shows better

Some sites use orange for rain but the blue to pink is best

Well done

ronnie3585

MetEireann wrote: »

Yes. We plan to redesign the website next year and accessibility will be given greater priority.

Just wondering if you will be including a radar update every 5 minutes instead of 15?

Thanks again for your engagement.