Building a trustworthy source of critical information for weather & environmental emergencies for the residents of Singapore.

Client National Environment Agency of Singapore
Year 2013 — 2019
My Role Project Director

Project Brief

Build a portal that allows for daily access to weather & environmental-related information in a manner that allows for easy consumption by the masses but also serves as the go-to source for accurate information in case of environmental emergencies like earthquakes, haze, lightning storms, and epidemics like Dengue.

The Challenge

For the 6 million residents of the tiny, tightly packed island of Singapore, a tsunami warning delay of a even few seconds can mean disaster. Week-long periods of deadly haze have become regular instances every year and dengue cases can surge within days of rainfall virtually any time of the year.

Having access to an accurate and reliable source of information is critical, but this information also needs to be broadcast actively whenever emergencies arise.

An app that everyone can use daily and also serves as their go-to in case of emergencies.

User research was key in establishing the direction for our project.

The Solution

My team built a suite of mobile & web apps that were aimed at helping users proactively get contextual weather information.

These apps didn't need you to monitor the weather conditions, but instead, they aimed to learn about your routines and then let you know when there was anything you needed to be aware of:

• Rain alerts, 15 mins before it was going to rain at home so you can roll up the laundry and bring it inside.
• Lightning alerts, so you knew when to ask your kids on the playground to come back inside.
• Dengue alerts whenever cases started surging in your neighbourhood, so you know when to be extra mindful of covering up when heading outside.
• Air Quality Alerts based upon your specific health needs for whenever the air quality dropped below certain thresholds.
• Nationwide Crisis Alerts in cases of extreme emergencies like earthquakes & tsunamis.

Some key information screens from the apps

The main screen of the mobile apps showing predictive weather information for your immediate surroundings.

Tide information for those out in the sea.

Weather info at a macro level for upto of the 42 different weather zones of the island.

Results

Singapore residents interact with these products over 1.5 million every month, with the usage surging to over 1.5 million interactions per day during phases of high haze. These products have won multiple awards, been rallied by the Prime Ministers Office and have become the goto source of weather information for Singapore.