Shift—Weather App

Academic Project / Illustration, UI
Overview

Shift is a weather app that lets outdoorsy types know when conditions are ideal for biking, hiking, or striking out on an adventure. Unlike the weather, users can always count on Shift’s sunny personality for a fun up-to-the-minute forecast.

Duration

September 2022 to September 2022

Roles

Research, Ideation, Illustration, UI Design, Prototyping

Tools

Figma, Procreate

An illustration of a girl on a bike going through a forest that transitions from rainy, sunny, and snowy weather
Objective

Creating illustrations for a mobile UI

This student project had a focus on creating artwork that could be applied to a weather app interface after briefly looking into a target audience that the app would cater to.

People biking or hiking on the right. Text on the left is information about outdoor enthusiasts
A mood board for the app's art direction. And a list of personality and values of the app: friendly, honest, etc.
Art Direction

Textured, lineless illustrations

For the art direction, there was a heavy focus placed on an art style that did not rely on any linework. Additionally, many apps and graphics seen online today are sleek, smooth, and texture-less so to counter that, texture was another part of the art direction that was explored for this weather app’s illustrations.

Sketches for the illustration. One concept is a person biking in various weather, the other are wheel spokes with raindrops
Concept Ideation

Two directions

During the concept ideation phase, there were 2 main concepts that came out of the initial sketches. The first concept was to play with scale and to feature a small cyclist in a big environment that would change according to the weather. The second concept was to focus on different parts of a bike, such as the bike spokes, and to create a slightly less literal depiction of the weather.

In the end, the first concept was chosen due to the fact that it complemented the art direction more.

All the illustrations for the app. A forest in different weather conditions, a girl on a bike looking into the distance, etc.
Illustration Library

The final illustration library had 16 pieces of artwork to be used for different parts of the weather app.

Low fidelity sketches with pen and paper and digital mid-fidelity wireframes of the app layout
User Interface Design

An extra challenge

An additional part of this project that I wanted to tackle was the UI. I strayed away from the template given for this project and focused on creating an interface that I felt would better fit my artwork.

The Final Interface

Drum roll please...

Three screens showing the Launch, Hourly, and 14-Day screens of the Shift weather app
Three screens showing the Current Conditions; illustrations of sunny, rainy, and snowy weather with a girl biking in them
Final Thoughts

Shifting weather, shifting plans

Throughout this project, I was able to produce a multitude of illustrations that all had a consistent art style. Experimenting with textures was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the process and it definitely adds a fun visual quality to the different illustrations.

If I were to do this project again, I would experiment more with colour and add motion into some of the illustrations as well.

Thank you for making it to the end of this case study!