"Add Weather Too" — How Family Conversations Shape the App

Some features in Panda Calendar came from user requests, but quite a few started with an offhand comment from family. Today I want to share those stories.

"Add Weather Too" — My Son's One Liner

The weather forecast feature was born from something my son said.

He was still in elementary school at the time, using the app on TV, when he said "I wish the calendar showed the weather too." I think the idea was that he wanted to know if it would be sunny on field trip day.

"That actually makes sense," I thought. When checking your schedule in the calendar, having the weather right there is genuinely convenient. You can grasp at the planning stage whether "this day might be rainy."

When I implemented it, the response was better than expected. When I received a review saying "I used to go back and forth between the weather forecast and calendar — now it's all on one screen," I was glad I'd taken my son's idea seriously.

"Isn't It Kind of Boring?" — My Wife's Design Demands

When I showed my wife the first version of the weather icons, she said "isn't it kind of boring?"

The feature worked, but the weather icons looked too system-like and plain, she pointed out. "Make it cuter," she requested, and I asked her to redesign the icons.

With the cuter icons, the look of the calendar with weather displayed improved significantly. The functionality was the same, but the visual impression changed quite a bit.

Our Development Meeting Is the Dinner Table

There are no formal meetings. Development talk usually comes up at dinner or on weekends when something occurs to someone.

"I think a feature like this would be good," "this operation is confusing," "this is handy" — those casual conversations become feature ideas or hints for improvements.

Because everyone in the family uses the app as a regular user, they naturally mention "things that bothered them while using it." Things that are hard to see from a developer's perspective are visible from a user's perspective.

Stamps Started as "I Want to Stick Pictures on It"

The stamp feature also started from a family conversation. "It would be fun if you could stick pictures on the calendar," which became the feature to add stamps to events.

Representing each family member with an animal, expressing outings or sports with vehicle or sports stamps — those kinds of uses were in mind when choosing the categories. My hope is that opening the calendar tells you what's happening at a glance.

Family Feedback Is Also the Voice of Users Worldwide

Something my family finds "hard to use" is likely felt by someone, somewhere in the world. The same goes for feature ideas.

Without any special research, things the family notices while using the app normally become hints for making it better. In that sense, family gives the most immediate and honest feedback of anyone.

I'm grateful to my son for saying "add weather too." It turned into a great feature.