First time user feedback!

[jpage4500]

Hi,

I recently bought a $35 Amazon Fire 7" Tablet with plans to make it an always-on weather station - mounted on the fridge.

I was able to add the Google Play Store to this tablet and I downloaded every weather app I could find that looks tablet ready.. I plan to purchase the one I like the best.

YoWindow is my #1 choice with #2 an app called Eye In Sky Weather.

I LOVE the animations - they really make this app stand out above all others. Also, I'm very happy you added a full screen option as well!

The only thing I'd really like to see is just to make the temperatures and weather icons stand out a little more. I realize the backgrounds are the real draw to this app - but at the end of the day the current and future temperatures are the reason I'm doing this.

If you look at Eye in the Sky Weather app you'll see how the icons and temperature really stand out and are easily readable at a glance. Granted, they don't have any of the background features of YoWindow either.. it's just a super clean (but bright) interface.

Anyway, my request would be to add some options to maybe adjust the fonts (color and size).. even if it's just a checkbox like 'use larger fonts'. Also, being able to change the weather icons or again just have a couple of options to choose from.

Also, just a comment - the backgrounds look great during the daytime. But, at night they're (obviously) hard to see. Problem is - in the winter it's dark outside from 4:30 PM on.. I never really see the nice daytime images except for the weekends. It'd be nice if the 'night' version of the background just wasn't so dark somehow. Again, that's just a minor nitpick on a very solid app! Well done.

thanks,
joe

[par]

Dear Joe, welcome!
Thank you for the very good review of YoWindow.
I personally think we should move in the direction you have proposed.
Can you send a couple of screen-shots where the information is hard to read on YoWindow screen?
I will be using them as a reference.

Yes, it makes sense to improve the brightness in the night (overcast case).
I hope we to change this soon.

And, yes, I hope to add custom weather icon sets.

[par]

Dear Joe, welcome!
Thank you for the very good review of YoWindow.
I personally think we should move in the direction you have proposed.
Can you send a couple of screen-shots where the information is hard to read on YoWindow screen?
I will be using them as a reference.

Yes, it makes sense to improve the brightness in the night (overcast case).
I hope we to change this soon.

And, yes, I hope to add custom weather icon sets.

Thank you for the compliments!

[jpage4500]

Hi,

Sorry for the delayed reply. I'll try to turn on notifications to this topic next so I don't miss any more updates.

I do have some screenshots and will attach. I think readability is worse in landscape since the current time/temp text is white and is closer to the buildings/trees/objects.

I've gone back and forth between YoWindow and Eye In Sky. Like I mentioned before, 2 very different approaches to weather! I really like the idea of this always-on weather station being more than just the weather. But, then again it's just a little too hard to view from any distance which takes away from the functional part of it.

I understand in YoWindow you don't want to make the text so big & readable that it takes away focus from the landscapes (which are awesome, btw!). Maybe there's some happy middle ground.

Just my thoughts.. what about reducing the opacity/alpha of the time and temp panels?

For me anyway, the most important things I want to see at a glance are the current temp and the future days temps. The font could be larger and bold for these.

Anyway, sorry if it sounds like I'm nitpicking! I realize you can't please everyone.. some people may not want the temps to get in the way of the very cool landscapes where I'm definitely more interested in the weather details. Maybe to satisfy both sets of users you can just have a preference called 'increase readability' or something

thanks again for taking the time to reply! Hope this helps a little

[jpage4500]

I found another app, Yahoo Weather, which has fonts that are very easy to see from a distance. Besides being larger they added a drop-shadow so the white font would stand out. This would be something that could really help YoWindow too IMO. I don't have a screenshot but there's lots of pictures on google images:

https://d1w5usc88actyi.cloudfront.net/w ... utiful.jpg

[jpage4500]

Sorry, I'm also an Android developer so I couldn't resist looking up how to add a shadow to text

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2486 ... ow-on-text

thanks,
joe

[par]

Thank you, Joe!
The screen-shots are very helpful.
You are absolutely right. We need to find a balance.
Also, we must make sure that the existing users to be happy after the change.

I have spent a couple of days researching for a possible ways to go.
And the outcome was the "night mode" in the recent builds.
Do you like how the text is readable in the night now?

For the day scenes I hope to show a beta solution in January.

YoWindow is displaying the text with its own Open GL engine.
So the shadow is added in a different manner.

Yahoo Weather is a brilliant weather app.
But, I don't want to add a black background to the day scenes because it would make the sky look too much dark.

I wonder do you have any apps released on Play Store as a developer?

[anna]

yes, anyway yahoo weather is the best provider weather add it