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Brolly: A Minimalist, Plain-Text Weather Forecast Website Launched.

jsax· July 25, 2026 View original

Summary

A developer launched Brolly.sh, a plain-text weather forecast site designed for quick, at-a-glance information, offering 7-day forecasts, historical data, and hourly details for various conditions, inspired by a desire for a simpler alternative to redesigned, less usable weather sites.

A new website, Brolly.sh, has been introduced as a minimalist, plain-text weather forecasting service. The creator developed it in response to the perceived reduced usability of a recently redesigned official weather site, which added excessive whitespace and animations. Brolly aims to provide essential weather information, including 7-day forecasts, previous day logs, and hourly details on rain, wind, temperature, UV, air quality, and pollen, in an easily digestible format. The site is optimized for mobile viewing with a single-column layout and features character-based visualizations, such as an hourly heat map for pollen counts. It also ensures shareability by storing all page state in the URL, allowing users to bookmark or share specific views. Built with Go, PocketBase, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, Brolly fetches data from open-meteo.com and employs a custom LRU cache to manage API requests efficiently.

Why it matters

This demonstrates a user-centric approach to product development, highlighting how simplicity and functionality can address user frustrations with overly complex interfaces, offering lessons for UI/UX designers and developers.

How to implement this in your domain

  1. 1Prioritize user experience by focusing on core functionality and ease of access over excessive visual flair.
  2. 2Conduct user research to identify pain points with existing solutions and inform new product development.
  3. 3Explore minimalist design principles to create efficient and highly usable interfaces.
  4. 4Implement URL-based state management to enhance shareability and bookmarking for web applications.
  5. 5Utilize open APIs and implement caching strategies to build cost-effective and performant services.

Who benefits

Web DevelopmentUI/UX DesignProduct ManagementData Visualization

Key takeaways

  • Simplicity and directness in UI/UX can significantly improve user satisfaction.
  • User frustration with complex interfaces can drive innovation for simpler alternatives.
  • Effective data visualization doesn't always require complex graphics; character-based solutions can be powerful.
  • Smart use of open APIs and caching can enable efficient and scalable web services.

Original post by jsax

"The UK MET office recently redesigned their site, adding a lot of additional whitespace, scrolling, and animations. This significantly reduced its usability for me, and left me wanting an ‘at a glance’ weather site. I made https://brolly.sh , a minimalist, plain text we…"

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