About the new Bureau of Meteorology home page

Purpose of the new home page design

The new home page design aims to make the links and information clearer and to offer immediate access to key weather information as well as direct links to some of the most frequently accessed pages.

Advances in computer technology including the widespread use of larger computer screens, have enabled the inclusion of live weather information within the page.

Content overview

There are three main groups of information. All service links have been grouped together into the left column, current weather information is presented in the centre column of the page, and news, public education and corporate information are grouped in the right column.

The major change is the addition of current weather products and direct links to streamline access to the most heavily accessed products. A current warnings summary, capital city précis forecast and current temperature and rainfall since 9 am are included. A live clickable satellite image has replaced the previous map of Australia.

Diagram of the main groups of information in the home page.

Site banner
Services	Current weather information Links to popular pages including state and national pages	News, public education resources and references, corporate information and research activities.
Site footer

 

Links that have changed

Most of the previous home page links have been included in the new home page, however the positions of the links have changed. Feedback and usability testing indicated a preference for the links to services to be on the left of the page, and those to topical, corporate and public education information to be on the right hand side of the page.

The centre of the page retains all the previous links to State and Territory, National and Global weather pages.

The warnings summary link is presented with links to states with warnings current. The map of Australia has been replaced with a current satellite image. Like the previous map, the satellite image can be clicked on to link to state and territory pages. Links to National, Global and High Seas pages are available from the menu above the satellite image.

Links to radar, satellite and charts pages have moved to the centre column and are highlighted with a small image for easy identification.

Links to services for specific groups, including Marine Services, SILO Services for Agriculture, Registered User Services and Special Services are now located in the left hand column.

The links to each type of service are now more obvious and the small selection of service links has been replaced with a short plain language description. The pages for each type of service offer a broader range of key links than could be practically represented in one page. The services pages also include supporting information along with the product links.

Ensure your current weather information is up-to-date

The new home page contains current weather information which is updated frequently.
Make sure that the weather information you are looking at is not out-of-date. Your computer or your Internet service provider may be storing older information, rather than displaying the latest published page. If refreshing your browser does not work, please read 'Web Caches'. This information which was prepared for radar products, is also relevant for the front page.

Weather Information update schedules

• The warnings list is updated every 10 minutes.
• The capital city forecasts are usually updated 3 to 4 times a day.
• The capital city latest weather is updated every 10 minutes.
  The temperature is rounded to the nearest whole number.
  The rainfall information is updated every 30 minutes.
• The satellite image is usually updated every hour.
  Earlier satellite images may be displayed when satellite data transmission is poor.
  The time shown on the image is in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

Technical requirements

Web browser support

Web browsers and technologies have changed considerably since the 1990s. The bureau no longer prepares pages for old web browsers. If the page does not display well in your web browser, you may need to update the browser.

Layout

The layout was designed to fit the most common computer screen size, however it is resizable so that it can be adjusted to fit most smaller screen displays.

Survey responses and feedback

We would like to thank everyone who completed the survey that accompanied the recent 'new home page' preview.

Most respondents indicated they found the new page clearer and provided more direct access to popular weather information. We will review all responses and determine how best to improve the home page.

Regional and rural respondents who felt there is a focus on capital city information, may be interested to know a new web section with a strong rural focus is being developed for Primary Industry and Natural Resource Management. It is due for release mid-2006. Announcements about this new web section will be published in the "This Month's Feature" and "News" section closer to the release date.

If you wish to comment on the new home page, please respond via the Bureau's Feedback page.