– YAHOO! WEATHER –

When Design Leads, Products Win: The Weather App Transformation

From 2.5 Stars to Category Leader
B2C (Business to Consumer) / Mobile App

Challenges
The Yahoo! Weather app existed as an overlooked Yahoo! digital property. Despite its potential for high-frequency daily engagement, it suffers from a 2.5-star Android rating, signaling a fundamental failure to meet basic user expectations. Operationally, the product is stalled by a lack of dedicated resources, no coherent mobile strategy, and an absence of leadership buy-in, resulting in stagnant user growth and zero perceived value to the broader company ecosystem.

Solution
I led and designed the Yahoo! Weather with Flickr app (Android app). The app delivers a visually rich, location-aware weather experience by integrating dynamic background photography sourced from Yahoo! Flickr, a partner photo service. From the outset, the experience was designed to work equitably across the full Android ecosystem, supporting both low-cost and premium devices, ensuring users are not excluded based on hardware limitations, data constraints, or screen size. This equity-focused approach enabled access for users on $50 entry-level phones as well as $500+ devices, without compromising core functionality.

To support a truly global and diverse user base, the app includes global language support with localization in over 35 languages, ensuring users around the world can access accurate, timely weather information in a way that feels familiar, culturally relevant, and personal. This investment in localization reduces barriers for non-English speakers and supports regional clarity in weather terminology, formats, and patterns.

Using Universal Design principles, the interface relies on clear visual hierarchy, plain language, familiar and intuitive interaction patterns that work for a broad range of users without requiring customization. Weather conditions are automatically paired with relevant imagery to reinforce understanding at a glance, reducing cognitive load and supporting users with varying levels of weather literacy.

Key Features

  • Contextual Visual Experience - Auto-matched location photos dynamically populate the main screen, creating an immersive weather view.

  • Gesture-Driven Interface - Tap image to toggle between full-screen photography and weather data; swipe left or right to switch saved locations.

  • Smart Use of Device Capabilities - Landscape rotation reveals extended weather details using the phone’s gyroscope.

  • Shareable Content - Users can share screenshots across social channels with quick-access menu options.

  • Home Screen Widget - A companion widget surfaces essential conditions, though early challenges with photo legibility informed future iterations.

  • Global Language Support - The Yahoo! Weather app supports a global audience and it is localized in over 35 languages, ensuring users around the world can access accurate, timely weather information in a way that feels familiar and personal.

Business Impact (within the first three months post-launch)

  • Improved app rating (2.5 to 4 stars)

  • Million+ downloads with rapid organic adoption

  • Global reach across 35 languages

  • Consistent user praise for balancing high-quality visuals with functional clarity

Long-Term Success

  • With the success of the Yahoo! Weather android app, the win transformed the property from neglected property to a now Yahoo! flagship product.

  • The app's market performance transformed organizational perception, securing sustained funding and resources. A new Yahoo! Weather iOS team was created.

  • Established a scalable cross-platform design system, later adopted by iOS and contributing to an Apple Design Award in 2013.

  • The new design approach also impacted the way the web experience is presented and utilized by the end user.

Role & Responsibilities

  • I led and designed this app from concept to launch (0-1 product), e.g., facilitating design work sessions with partners and team, creating user flows and prototypes, usability testing, and ensuring seamless implementation with development teams.

  • I balanced hands-on design work with project leadership, delivering mobile experiences while managing timelines and aligning cross-functional teams toward shared goals.

DESIGN - The screens below are showing a splash, a local weather location and full image view screens.

weather_1.png
weather_6.png

LOCALIZATION - Yahoo! Weather is available in 35 languages.

“I’m a 13 year old and I think this app is fantastic. Instead of looking at the news for the weather. I can look on here. Now i’ll know the apporpiate clothes to wear to school. :D” 5 Star rating.” – A user review from Cairo, Egypt
Localization

DETAILS - In the case below, the contrast of the panels are tested and iteratively adjusted to ensure that the component performs well with all image type and lighting conditions. We scrutinized every detail on the app to ensure we meet a high level of quality, accessibility and performance.

The details are not the details. They make the design. — Eames Office
weather_2.png

QUICK FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS
I designed the iconography using existing icon library working closely with the brand and Y! Illustration team. Showcased here is the feature set for the app.

DEFAULT WEATHER ART In any case, when there is no location art or that a location art is in progress of loading, a default art will load in its place. I recreated the weather art using art available from the weather library to match the weather conditions.

weather_5.png

A Yahoo! Weather fan created a video on Youtube.

 

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT JET AT YAHOO!

Sr. Product Manager, Design partner at Yahoo! Weather, Sunnyvale, CA, United States

Jet is a pleasure to work with as has been a wonderful and talented designer on our Yahoo! Weather for Android team. He brings a lot of energy and ideas to a project and expediently delivers great designs and assets.

Jet has the tenacity to jump into a project at any stage and with high risks, as supported by a fond memory of his work-marathon during the famed Yahoo! Hack Days (24 hour product innovation marathon) to work on our Weather team. The result - we won amongst 80+ other teams. Any team would be stronger for having such a strong design contributor.

Sr. Product Manager, Design partner at Yahoo! News, Sunnyvale, CA, United States

Jet is talented as well as motivated when it comes to design. He not only creates experiences that are visually attractive, but goes the extra step to make sure the implementation stacks up to his high standards. Jet would be an asset in any organization that values design.