The Existing Kiosk in 2004

Standardized data on weather conditions at this location is archived going back 80 years. Making this dense mass of data available could emphasize to visitors of this site the importance of weather observation as not a prosaic and distant phenomenon, but as both a hyper-local occurrence (this one point, right now) and a continuously evolving store of knowledge (this one point, at any or all periods between 1920 and today.)

My approach to redesigning the weather kiosk at Belvedere Castle is to highlight and celebrate the castle’s historical significance by allowing visitors to casually browse over temperature data collected at that location since January 1, 1920, when the station became operational. Temperature is the most basic measure of weather conditions, and as such is a natural choice when presenting only one dimension of weather data. Temperature also has as an advantage that it is cyclical over long periods of time, but the historical archive also records a rich variety of extreme highs and lows, as well as exceptional patterns, in a measurement that is easy to relate to.

The Existing UI in 2004

Visitors will be able to manipulate their view of dynamic temperature data graphs over the castle’s 80-year historical record. Navigating these graphs, visitors will be able to compare historical conditions to current ones, search for extremes, or view broad patterns by week, month, year or decade. The presentation of this data should be in a simple visual manner with an intuitive interface, so that visitors can spend anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes browsing. The display will also present current weather conditions to the viewer at all times, regardless of what point or period they are browsing over. This is in order to emphasize the important idea that it (and the visitor themself) is part of a living system, a reminder that history is a continuing story.