Italia Online

The mission

Italia Online were keen to increase the advertising opportunities within their current portfolio of products.

One of the marketing decisions was to create a new initiative to create a suite of market-leading mobile apps to create an engaged community.

We were asked to build the new weather app product.

Controlling the weather

Our first port of call was to create a series of user journeys that we wanted our users to follow.

Once we had agreed these we were in a position to start work on the wireframes for the project.

Dynamic weather images

Dynamic images are those images used as the wallpaper for cities and change based on their current weather conditions.

84 different weather conditions were identified and accounted for in the system each would have its own default image and then a city specific image to be shown based on the users location.

Designing for success

Each wireframe in the app was skinned with a new visual style created for the new app.  There was a new set of brand guidelines that had to be adhered to, we were in a position to be able to influence these guidelines with respect to new digital assets.

Outlining the functionality was critical to developing a successful, bold e-commerce website design. By thinking through the customer journey in the planning stages, we were able to create a smooth and attractive path through the website.

Functionality

The app was configured to allow the user to determine when to receive notifications about their selected weather – i.e. once in the morning and one in the evening.

The user will be able to select the time for each notification in the app’s settings much like the Yahoo! Weather App. The user will also be able to choose between the current location or select a city from their list of saved locations to receive notifications.

The user was also able to Submit their own “weather report” for a particular location, helping to “crowd source” live data feeds to corroborate or

User testing

Once we had a Beta version of the app ready for a select group of users to test in earnest, focused user groups were created to gather valuable feedback.

This input was then fed back into the UAT loop to further enhance the product ready for a v1.0 release to the wider general public in Italy.

Lift off

With the user feedback incorporated into the product, and a significant marketing budget poised for activation, the app was launched into the market with a bang.

What’s the weather like in your city?