The IC3 Blue Train - A little journal about design, marketing, sales and other matters

When more can be less

The weather forecast on the respectable BBC TV news has become rather extravagant, confusing and, ultimately, quite useless. Unless I concentrate hard on what the presenter says and on where the camera ‘flies’ over the giant slanted map of the UK, I can’t figure out what the weather is going to be where I live, in the next twelve hours.

The main problem is that they are trying to cram too much information in a few minutes and through two competing channels. First, there is the voice of the dedicated show person (the Beeb seems to employ an army of them - 50 names on their website) whose challenge is to tell us what the weather will be, in the next five days (the prowess of supercomputing), in England (East, Midlands, North East, North West, South, South West, South East), Northern Ireland, Scotland (North and South), Wales and Channel Islands, and who tries to avoid repetitions and boredom through flowery language and various gesticulations (many Brits have problems synchronising their hands with what they say).

Then there is the supermap of UK, a typical example, in my opinion, of technology misuse. One sees a slanted map of the country, without relief, where the land is sad brown (we have a drought South of London but it’s not yet a desert). Some areas are shaded (darker brown); I’m still trying to figure out what that means (cloudy weather?); and rain is shown as blue areas, as if it creates immediate lakes - here's how it looks like. The camera moves over that map and zooms into specific regions as the presenter tells you at the speed of a bullet train what the weather has been (the only sure thing) and what it will be, in that part of UK, today, tomorrow, the day after, day four and day five. Any normal member of the TV audience is overwhelmed and numb after 34 seconds.

Don’t laugh! This ‘progress’ may reach your favourite TV station soon. The solution? I would simplify and focus. In national news, summarise the main trends and ‘cut’ the country in three main areas or less (e.g. West, North and South). In regional news, delve into details without mentioning other regions, and talk about today, tomorrow and longer-term trends. Also, revise the supermap and its symbolism with a sharp eye, and from the audience’s point-of-view. Maybe a challenge for Edward Tufte.

Auntie Beeb, we still think you’re one of the best. Don’t listen to too many technology freaks, geeks and junkies.