The Future of the Thermometer
I have a mac, and the weather widget is one of my favorite things about it. I have multiple ones open, to monitor the weather in places I could be (Athens (my home city), New York, London (many friends of mine live there)). It's like a game, and my goal is to be in the place with the warmest temperature. I am losing right now.
I was away this week, so I took the opportunity to talk to my family about what their feelings are about the weather and what they might want from a thermometer. They are definitely not as addicted to checking the temperature every second as I am, but my dad likes to go sailing so he is interested in knowing what the wind conditions will be, and he also wants to be able to access forecasts from the sailboat (ideally through his cellphone).
For our ambient thermometer, we decided that we want something that helps you know exactly how the weather is (or will be), without using abstract values (degrees, percentages, etc), but by creating a tangible sample of the weather that you can instantly sample with your hand.
We discussed a lot what the shape of the device should be, what the interaction will be and how the interface will look. Our notes are on the wiki.