If you take the numbers away you can clearly understand how cold/warm it will be with just colour on the old map compared to the newer one:
That's only useful in relative terms, and even then not very. How are you supposed to remember, day-to-day, whether that shade of yellow is 15 degrees or 20?
Of course, it’s only relative but I get a good idea of the sense of warmth or cold by looking at the shade of colours when presented across the map. The bluer the colour the colder it is and the deeper the red the warmer it is. That corilation between colour and temperature is drilled into us from a young age so it makes sense to make it visible.
I’m sure a lot will change over the coming months. Remember 2005? Many things - the headline, the map’s tilt, AM/PM to 24-hour clock, the speed of the move around the map - changed quite quickly and remained in place until today.
First impressions: the map does look quite small and there seem to be some dark areas which I thought were cloud on the North West forecast posted but actually seem to indicate hills or something. Place names, as discussed, obscure the map and I think it’s a shame they’ve lost the weather globe from the top.
Overall, I find the forecast more difficult to follow, and ITV now has the best graphics set.
I’m sure a lot will change over the coming months. Remember 2005? Many things - the headline, the map’s tilt, AM/PM to 24-hour clock, the speed of the move around the map - changed quite quickly and remained in place until today.
First impressions: the map does look quite small and there seem to be some dark areas which I thought were cloud on the North West forecast posted but actually seem to indicate hills or something. Place names, as discussed, obscure the map and I think it’s a shame they’ve lost the weather globe from the top.
Overall, I find the forecast more difficult to follow, and ITV now has the best graphics set.
That original tilt was quite ridiculous, how they ever thought they’d get away with it.
Most of the press coverage seems to be praising the new look due to the lack of tilt, but knowing how old fashioned the papers are,they are probably remembering the original tilt outrage forgetting that it was fixed quickly.
I’d expect Wales to kick up a fuss, maybe just don’t mark on Birmingham at all, although then the brummies would kick up a fuss...
If you want to see clear, crisp weather forecasts with a nice brown land mass, press your red button NOW and go to p400!!
Even that is easier to understand than these new broadcast weather forecasts. It is quite difficult to distinguish cloud from snow!! You really have to concentrate on the miniscule map and then form your own opinion on what is going to happen during the day. It isn't easy to peruse the graphics and decide when the sunny intervals will be. Or anything to that matter.
ITV Weather all the way - Home of the Met Office!! They are miles ahead of the BBC now.
With Sports graphics now in the 16:9 area I wonder if the BBC will be adapting that when they rebrand the channels or introduce Reith corporation wide? Surely keeping things 4:3 safe is a bit much in this day and age?
I think the decision to keep graphics 4:3 safe is down to a few things: World still only reaches a lot of people in 4:3 so keeping an entirely separate set of 16:9 safe templates would be a hassle, and the 4:3 safe graphics makes reversioning weather shows for social (9:16, 1:1) a lot easier.
I like them, they're simple. Rain cloud etc is obvious and it's smooth and does what it needs. I don't like the boxes though with temp or location and the location pointer, it's all a bit cluttered other than that they've done well.
Definitely think there are some things to change here. I agree with others that the map looks a bit off in terms of angle/positioning and that ITV now has the superior package - the fly-around sequence is now just a pan from the north to the south of the UK and so shows fewer location temperatures and looks less good than before. The background to the locations on the map at the very least need to go too.
Furthermore, asides from the maps all the captions, weather warning slides and summary screens just look a bit, well, dull. By making the on-screen forecast resemble the online version it's as if they've pared back how nice the TV graphics can look because the website needs to follow the BBC's GEL standards, which ultimately don't translate to the screen very well.
Finally, as nice as the animation is, I think the forecast needs to begin with the BBC Weather logo already formed. On both the News at 1 and Look East tonight the forecaster referred to the 'weather window' at the start, which is a bit strange as it starts out crisp, blurs for the logo reveal, and then becomes crisp again as they look 'behind the window'. Seems a bit superfluous really.
On the whole then, not the best. However, considering the many changes made due to feedback after the last big revamp, I do hold out hope that a lot of this will be improved in the weeks to come!
Re-reading that thread on the 2005 revamp, I'd almost forgotten how awful it was when it first came in, not just the awful tilt that rendered Scotland invisible, but that there was no wind information for several weeks (how did they think was that a good idea?), or any pressure charts or really any real information apart from rainfall. Suprised to look into it and see it took until April 2006 for them to revert back to the 24 hour clock, I thought it happened a lot sooner (again, why they went back to the 12 hour when they'd been 24 hour since computer graphics came in in 1985 is beyond me).
I'm sure there'll be tweaks this time around too, but at least it doesn't seem to be the disaster that 2005 was. It took them months to sort out all the problems that should have been sorted before they even went on air (and really should never have been there in the first place).
I like the new maps. They are something that as an American I’m more used to.
However I would want them to figure out how to divide them up. I’m decent at geography but I’d like it if there was a line denoting the Mexico, US and Canada border, maybe divide them into the states of US and Mexico along with the Canadian provinces.
I realize the UK into counties and putting them all on the small map may make it a bit difficult to tell. But perhaps dividing the map up generally by the English regions, the counties of Wales and (I’m not sure how Scotland would be divided as there are 33 in such a small area) to make it easier for the viewer to distinguish where’s where. Most people have a general idea but some way of demarcation may make it easier for people to ascertain forecasts.
The Look East map looks strange. It shows almost all of central England and Wales. It feels like it needs to be zoomed in more.
Also the hub forecast this morning included the endboard (BBC Weather on association with MeteoGroup) but it meant the Outlook was on screen for seconds and you couldn't read any of it. Possibly just a teething problem that they'll tweak over next few days.
