Test Page for New Radar Colour Scheme

MetEireann · 27-07-2015 5:30pm #1

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 · 27-07-2015 5:38pm

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 · 27-07-2015 5:41pm

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 · 27-07-2015 5:43pm

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

talkabout · 27-07-2015 8:15pm

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 · 27-07-2015 10:04pm

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 · 27-07-2015 11:05pm

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 · 28-07-2015 12:24am

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 · 28-07-2015 12:48am

Any chance of a zoom in and out option?

Hooter23 · 28-07-2015 1:06am

Older one is better i think

Xenji · 28-07-2015 2:16am

I would still stay with the older version as well.

Oneiric 3 · 28-07-2015 4:17am

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 · 28-07-2015 9:14am

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 · 28-07-2015 9:23am

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 · 28-07-2015 10:09am

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

MetEireann · 28-07-2015 10:19am

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 · 28-07-2015 10:35am

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 · 28-07-2015 11:22am

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 · 28-07-2015 11:43am

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 · 28-07-2015 1:32pm

gah

Trogdor · 28-07-2015 3:11pm

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 · 28-07-2015 4:33pm

I prefer the older older version. Much better definition

PukkaStukka · 28-07-2015 4:46pm

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 · 28-07-2015 5:36pm

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 · 28-07-2015 6:33pm

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

FWVT · 28-07-2015 6:37pm

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 · 28-07-2015 6:39pm

The newest update covers all the bases for me.

tricky D · 28-07-2015 6:41pm

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 · 28-07-2015 7:34pm

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 · 28-07-2015 7:43pm

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 · 28-07-2015 8:33pm

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.

Test Page for New Radar Colour Scheme

Comments