Met office GA products severely lacking
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Met office GA products severely lacking
Am I the only one that thinks the Mets website and apps are both a complete load of shyte and of very limited utility. As a paying subscriber to the Met Office GA products it seems to me that during the layout and design phase of developing their site they must have decided to get the most awkward bar steward possible to put it together.
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No you're not the only one.
The old Met Office site was clunky but because it was text-based was easier to access in areas of poor connection (ie most farm strips and rural airfields)
Like all companies they have gone down the 'mobile-first' path of app design and employed people to develop the Met Office website who have nothing to do with aviation.
Particular bugbears:
1) constantly having to log-in. For some reason every week or so I have to log-in even though I have it set for 'remember login details'
2) The Form 215 prognosis is hopeless being updated at midday and midnight. If we have 4 Form 215s a day why can't we have 4 prognoses matching the following 6 hour period - it's because they graft in an image from the public-facing site.
3)The TAF/METAR page is glitchy. Sometimes it doesn't show the region list. You have to go to another page then try to load it from elsewhere (happens in Windows and Android)
But the Met Office are trying hard to commercialise the produce to gain income from us, even though there are other sites that are better and free. It isn't working.
The old Met Office site was clunky but because it was text-based was easier to access in areas of poor connection (ie most farm strips and rural airfields)
Like all companies they have gone down the 'mobile-first' path of app design and employed people to develop the Met Office website who have nothing to do with aviation.
Particular bugbears:
1) constantly having to log-in. For some reason every week or so I have to log-in even though I have it set for 'remember login details'
2) The Form 215 prognosis is hopeless being updated at midday and midnight. If we have 4 Form 215s a day why can't we have 4 prognoses matching the following 6 hour period - it's because they graft in an image from the public-facing site.
3)The TAF/METAR page is glitchy. Sometimes it doesn't show the region list. You have to go to another page then try to load it from elsewhere (happens in Windows and Android)
But the Met Office are trying hard to commercialise the produce to gain income from us, even though there are other sites that are better and free. It isn't working.
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I agree it is second rate. Contrast with the states where met service is not only way better but you do not pay to access the data their tax dollars already paid for.
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I also agree that I preferred the old site. It was very easy to use and read.
Since its changed I have problems logging in and find the layout a bit chaotic.
"Progress".
(Edit:- Just to add I quite like the automatic Wx warning getting e-mailed to me, however some of them are a bit extreme. Currently there's been a "strong wind warning" in force since early this morning at my home base where all morning the wind has been a mighty 8kts. And the incessant "ground/air frost warning" has been happening multiple times practically every day since November. Apparently I need to beware that there is a rick of frost in the winter. No sh*t, sherlock... )
Since its changed I have problems logging in and find the layout a bit chaotic.
"Progress".
(Edit:- Just to add I quite like the automatic Wx warning getting e-mailed to me, however some of them are a bit extreme. Currently there's been a "strong wind warning" in force since early this morning at my home base where all morning the wind has been a mighty 8kts. And the incessant "ground/air frost warning" has been happening multiple times practically every day since November. Apparently I need to beware that there is a rick of frost in the winter. No sh*t, sherlock... )
Last edited by TelsBoy; 9th Mar 2018 at 11:31.
When this awful redesign was being trialled (two years ago?), I not only moaned along with many forumites in The Other Place, I also sent my moans to the Met' Office. Consequently, I was invited to have a conference call with their web developer. This call lasted IIRC about an hour and a half. The developer was quite open that he knew nothing about aviation and the idea that people might be operating in the field with a very low data rate clearly did compute (deliberate pun, sorry) with him. Anyway, half of my Friday afternoon was wasted and nothing of any significance changed. Essentially, since the change I have used SkyDemon to access weather. Which probably works for the Met' Office since SkyDemon probably has to pay directly for the service and I only pay indirectly as a UK tax payer. They have advertising on the Met' Office site FFS. Still, what can we expect, large segments of the UK have spent the large parts of the last forty years voting for parties (Conservatives and New Labour) that want to destroy public services so everything ends up "in the market". It's also why our ATC system is so screwed, I imagine the USA will be the same in a few years if they really do privatise ATC there.
..and breathe!
..and breathe!
I also complained, but am happy with the final product free to pilots.
Only minor gripe is that frequently the prognosis map is in fact for the same time as the forecast.
Only minor gripe is that frequently the prognosis map is in fact for the same time as the forecast.
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The most useful information that is now no longer available to GA was the 3-day forecast. When it disappeared, I phoned the Met Office and they said it wouldn't feature in future. Grrr.
I was involved with some validation of new Met Office data after I complained about the change over. Two things became very apparent, they had no idea who their main customer base was or how they were going to use the data. They had little or no knowledge of alternative products or data sources and finally they had already made up their mind, so listening to the users whomsoever they might be, was not on their agenda.
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I was involved with some validation of new Met Office data after I complained about the change over. Two things became very apparent, they had no idea who their main customer base was or how they were going to use the data. They had little or no knowledge of alternative products or data sources and finally they had already made up their mind, so listening to the users whomsoever they might be, was not on their agenda.
This may seem like a longer way to build anything, because criteria is ever evolving and therefore ever changing, as such it is difficult to put a definite timeline, a definite end of the project and hence budget in place. However, the end result, even after v1 or v2 will be so significantly better than any previous version, simply because it is tailor made for the intended customer, that it means that the money hasn't been wasted on a crappy "new" version of their presently offered content (as is what happened here).
It is a shame being one of those people who understand the problems faced by companies, and yet seeing them fail time after time because they refuse to ask the customers what they need and what they want.
I think it is important to have someone looking at the user experience (by talking to users) separate from the system designers and coders.
When the designers/coders talk to users, they tend to look for confirmation that their design is correct, and ignore any evidence that users don't like it. Users that don't like their wonderful design are "stupid", stuck in the past and unwilling to change.
One sees this sometimes with Open Source software, where often there is no separate user experience team. I recently looked at a few issues in the Vivaldi (open source browser) forum, and where users suggested changes, their ideas were often dismissed without much discussion, sometimes quite rudely. You don't like our wonderful browser? Go back to Internet Explorer, you don't deserve anything better.
When the designers/coders talk to users, they tend to look for confirmation that their design is correct, and ignore any evidence that users don't like it. Users that don't like their wonderful design are "stupid", stuck in the past and unwilling to change.
One sees this sometimes with Open Source software, where often there is no separate user experience team. I recently looked at a few issues in the Vivaldi (open source browser) forum, and where users suggested changes, their ideas were often dismissed without much discussion, sometimes quite rudely. You don't like our wonderful browser? Go back to Internet Explorer, you don't deserve anything better.
Personally the TAF & METARs are concise and accurate, choose a few for the areas you need if venturing further afield.
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mike hallam.
This might excite you too ? https://www.ventusky.com/?l=pressure&w=0DAkXVvsb
mike hallam.
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I think it is important to have someone looking at the user experience (by talking to users) separate from the system designers and coders.
When the designers/coders talk to users, they tend to look for confirmation that their design is correct, and ignore any evidence that users don't like it. Users that don't like their wonderful design are "stupid", stuck in the past and unwilling to change.
When the designers/coders talk to users, they tend to look for confirmation that their design is correct, and ignore any evidence that users don't like it. Users that don't like their wonderful design are "stupid", stuck in the past and unwilling to change.