Travel Forecast
Helping travelers anticipate weather disruptions and plan with confidence
Situation
Travel is one of the moments when weather matters most. A sunny day forecast is convenient, but a storm during a flight connection can derail entire trips. Yet most weather apps are location-centric — they answer “What is the weather here?” but travelers need “What will the weather be across my journey?”
The pain points were clear: travelers manually checking multiple cities, no visibility into layover weather risk, delays discovered too late, fragmented planning scattered across apps, and a constant undercurrent of anxiety around unknown conditions. Weather was part of travel planning — but it wasn't integrated into it.
At The Weather Company, we had the data, the audience, and the forecasting infrastructure. What we didn't have was a product that connected those dots for people in motion.
Task
As the Senior Product Designer, I led the product and UX direction for a Travel Forecast concept — a feature that would help users plan trips around weather risk instead of checking conditions city by city.
The goals were clear: provide a journey-level weather view, surface potential delay risks early, support both casual and frequent travelers, reduce planning friction, and make insights actionable — not just informative. I defined core trip flows, designed the input and forecast experiences, collaborated with engineering on feasibility, and balanced depth with simplicity throughout.
Action
Journey, not location
I reframed the mental model from city-based weather to trip-based weather. Instead of showing conditions for a single pin on the map, users could input their departure city, destination, dates, layovers, and flight numbers when available. The system then aggregated weather across locations and time windows — giving travelers a single, connected view of their entire journey.
Risk-based forecasting
Rather than showing only temperature and rain, the focus shifted to travel impact. Storm probability, snow and visibility risk, wind severity, airport disruption likelihood — all translated from raw weather into travel relevance. A 60% chance of rain means little to most people. “Moderate delay risk at your layover” means everything.
Timeline visualisation
I explored a trip timeline that showed departure weather, layover conditions, arrival forecast, and key risk windows — all on a single scannable surface. The goal was to let users quickly assess their journey without drilling into individual cities. The timeline became the backbone of the experience, turning a multi-step lookup into a single glance.
Proactive guidance
Where risk was high, the interface surfaced contextual prompts: “Potential delay risk,” “Tight connection risk due to storms,” “Consider earlier arrival at airport.” The tone stayed informative, not alarmist. The aim was to give travelers just enough signal to adjust their plans — without triggering unnecessary anxiety.
Flexible input
Reducing friction at the entry point was critical. Users could manually enter trip details, select from saved trips, or potentially import from email or calendar integrations. The principle was low effort, high value — get travelers into the forecast experience as quickly as possible without asking for more than they needed to give.
Cross-functional alignment
I worked closely with engineering on data aggregation feasibility — how to stitch together forecasts across multiple locations and time zones into a single coherent view. Product discussions focused on scope and prioritisation, while stakeholder conversations centred on real travel scenarios and edge cases. We balanced ambition with what was realistically buildable.
Result
While this was a forward-looking concept, the design work established a clear direction and validated the approach across the team.
- Reduced travel anxiety through proactive, journey-level weather insights
- Better trip preparedness by surfacing risk windows before departure
- Higher engagement potential from frequent travelers who need weather across multiple cities
- Differentiation from standard weather apps that remain locked to single-location forecasting
- A reusable journey-based framework that could extend to road trips, multi-city tours, and event planning
Reflection
This project emphasised designing for moments that matter. Travel is high-stakes and emotional. Weather plays a real role in outcomes — missed connections, cancelled flights, ruined plans. Yet most weather products treat every context the same.
By framing forecasts around journeys rather than locations, the product becomes a planning partner instead of just an information source. It reinforced my belief that senior design is about reframing problems, not just polishing interfaces. The strongest move wasn't a better weather card — it was changing the question from “What's the weather?” to “What does the weather mean for my trip?”