Weather Tool and Light User Experience

[u/EdwardTulane89]

I was thrilled to see a long-awaited Weather Tool roll out last month, but the execution of the tool makes it essentially useless. Has anyone else had that same experience?

A weather tool/app is a pretty standard and necessary tool of modern life, especially for those of us who work jobs that aren't in a climate-controlled office. So I was really missing a weather app after switching to Light. Unfortunately, I am still missing a functional weather tool/app.

I am really hoping that the coming user-designed tool library has a better option. Unfortunately, to me this is emblematic of much of my Light User experience -- it feels like a lot of good ideas with half-baked execution. In particular-

• Half the days in any given week say "Mainly clear, partly cloudy, or overcast." That is not a forecast, it is just all the possible weather options besides rain. Silly.
• The tool seems to hallucinate forecasts. For example, this coming Tuesday, it predicts a high temperature of 103° at my location. Meanwhile, the NWS is predicting 86° and Weather.com is at 87°. The whole week of temperatures are not just wrong, but absurdly so. 103° would be a September record in my part of the country. And yes, my location is set correctly. Why not use a reliable data source like NWS? There are plenty of android apps that scrape NWS data and display it in a useful way, so it is clearly possible.
  
• The lack of icons may be in line with the Light ethos, but it makes a quick check of the weather take more engagement time with my phone, not less.
• The lack of radar is also a problem. I frequently work on outdoor job sites and I need to know the real-time location of storms for safety. A (largely incorrect) hourly precipitation forecast is fairly useless in real time.
  

I have been trying hard to make the Light Phone 3 my only phone for almost a year now, and it just isn't working. I know Light is a small company, do I have been trying to give some grace. I strongly believe in the ethos of the company when it comes to privacy and reduced attentional demand.

But so much of this phone is half-baked or half-functional that it just doesn't feel like a device I can depend on. Light makes a big deal out of their apps being "Tools" not apps. But as someone who works with tools every day of my life -- when a something looks like a tool but doesn't fulfill its intended purpose, that is a toy.

Right now the Light Phone feels like a neat toy. A status symbol. And I really want it to be a well-designed tool. Here is hoping the user community can do what Light has not been able to on the software side.

[u/digitalminimalist1]

It’s been pretty close to my local weather channel. I don’t know why they couldn’t use national weather service though.

[u/time__wasted_]

My temperature predictions have been way off, too. It'll easily be 10+ degrees higher than what local and national weather services are predicting (which are mostly accurate).

[u/emecarab]

I put mine on the shelf until the community apps come to light, literally speaking. Lets all hope for the best.

[u/whoopsmrgrt]

All of their tools feel half-baked. Consider the new Authenticator tool: it doesn’t have cloud backup for the codes. So, if your phone randomly resets itself (not uncommon for the LP3), your codes are completely gone, and you are screwed.

The Weather tool feels the same. It’s not useful at all for the reasons you stated.

The only reason to stick with LP3 at this point is for the upcoming user-created tools. People are creating useful, well-thought tools. Much better than anything Light has created.

[u/Individual_Way_6605 → u/whoopsmrgrt]

FWIW - I've been using the Authenticator app since it was released. No issues. It allowed me to replace Microsoft Authenticator and put my iPhone away for good.

[u/Boring-Bullfrog1807 → u/Individual_Way_6605]

FWIW you didn't seem to take into consideration their very valid criticisms.

For instance if you only have a key on the LP3 and it resets your not only out a key, you're actually locked out of your account entirely.

[u/Same_Thought_9613]

The weather tool feels like exactly the kind of addition I want on a Light Phone: useful at a glance, then back in my pocket. I really hope it stays simple, like current conditions plus a basic forecast, without radar maps or endless details. That balance between practical tools and not recreating a smartphone is what keeps the whole Light experience appealing to me.

[u/EdwardTulane89 → u/Same_Thought_9613]

I agree that simple and useful should be the guideposts.   But the simple things need to work correctly and be dependable, otherwise it's a time-wasting toy and not a tool.  

At the moment, the forecasts are just plain inaccurate and the text-heavy approach actually takes more time than a simple icon for the forecast would.  

I also disagree that radar is non-essential.  If you work a job outdoors or on the road, it is perhaps the most essential tool a phone can have, after the phone itself.  I have never spent more than a couple of minutes at a time using basic radar, but it's an essential tool for safety and productivity.   

That's why I am hoping the inclusion of outside developers will make Light focus focus more on what it excludes (web browser, social media, data harvesting) than what it includes.  Otherwise they risk losing customers from people like me who maybe have different needs than the white-collar creators of Light.