
Show HN: I give you the most suitable outfit to wear depending on weather - crcht
https://www.fashion-frog.app/
======
crcht
How do you decide what to wear when you wake up, or when you're planning to go
on a romantic weekend getaway? I made an app for that called Fashion Frog, who
gives you the most suitable outfit to wear depending on the current weather
condition and the time of the day relevant to you.

I learned a lot while coding this little side project app on Android and iOS,
like using the OpenWeather API.

I created the algorithms to propose the suitable outfit for the day anywhere
in the world. It took some time to assembly and think about the looks and the
illustrations. But I want to talk to you about my biggest pain: the timezone
module.

It was very difficult to get the app working on every timezone of the world.
Indeed, I wanted to give weather from morning to night but I needed to know
what time was at every town of the world (to display only 4 simple
informations : morning, afternoon, evening, night). At fist, I wanted to use
the Google Timezone API but it was very expensive.

My first solution was to use Kevin Robert module called city-timezone, it
covered 80% of the users requests. Sometimes the city is not found, in this
case I choose a timezone list from the web that I parsed, then I used another
list for the towns of the world with a timezone indication code inside. So I
was able to match the town with the timezone when a user select a town. And
finally, if the timezone of the town is still not found, I use timezonedb API
(link below) who let me cover at the end almost all the town of the world.

I also set things to not call too much the weather API (like if you want to
get the weather 8 mins later at the same position, I didn’t call again the
API, I save it for 10 mins inside the app).

The app is still in progress, because I want to add an Inspiration section and
to create a more complex outfit proposition algorithm (I like it so far, but I
think it can be improved). I already got design feedback by a UX/UI designer
that helped me to think about the future experience inside this little app. I
also used the Humaaans illustration base and recreated clothes on top, it was
very creative and fun to do.

Fun fact: I wanted to create this app at the beginning only for Men living in
Paris, France because it was my actual pain: what outfit I should prepare to
look my best throughout the full day? And now, my biggest users this month
(51%) are Women living in US and UK. It took me a huge amount of time to
create english speaker and Women version of the app, but it was a great idea
to offer the app to as many people as possible from the beginning, because my
target users revealed itself.

LINKS : \- Weather API:
[https://openweathermap.org](https://openweathermap.org) \- Timezone module:
[https://github.com/kevinroberts/city-
timezones](https://github.com/kevinroberts/city-timezones) \- Timezone last
chance API: [http://timezonedb.com](http://timezonedb.com) \- Humaans
illustration library: [https://www.humaaans.com/](https://www.humaaans.com/)
\- Google Timezone API:
[https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/timezone/in...](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/timezone/intro)

~~~
Fradow
Nice job, I didn't find a good weather app on Android yet, it's exactly the
infos I want to know in the morning.

Do you plan to allow for personnal preferences? People generally have a
different sensitivity to temperature.

It would be nice to be able to swipe between T, T+1 and T+2 instead of going
to settings.

~~~
crcht
Hi @Fradow, thank you so much for this kind message. Yes I planned to allow
for personnal preferences with the creation of a Closet section inside the
app. But in the way you say I didn't think about it yet, it's true people can
have different sensibility to temperature, I will try to get this information
for my little algorithm to adapt the propositions. Yes the swipe is something
that could be awesome! I really want to implement it in the next version of
the app. Thanks again for your feedbacks!

------
harshalizee
Why does it have to be yet another app I need to install? This can easily and
better done on a website

~~~
arman_ashrafian
I think most people use their phone before putting on their outfit, not their
computers. Generally I agree that more things should be mobile-friendly
websites, but in this case I think an app is a good idea.

~~~
crcht
Hey @arman_ashrafian, thanks for your message! I share that thought with you.
Btw, I made this app in a PWA way, so if one day I see that a lot of people
prefer to use it on web, it's still possible.

------
michelinman
Great idea chap but a word of caution - don't spend any money advertising in
the UK. The weather here is generally hot, sunny, raining - mild chance of
thunderstorm, hail and snow with a 50% chance of wind. Good luck.

~~~
crcht
Hi @michelinman, thanks for the advice! It's funny because I have a lot of
people from UK but I totally get your point ahah

------
vcoelho
Cool, but I tried to find my city (Santa Maria, BR) and didn't work. Probably
it was hidden past the current list limitation (5, I guess). P.S: There's two
cities with this name in Brazil.

~~~
crcht
Hi @vcoelho! Thanks for your message. Yes I put a limitation to 5 for now
because my search box is really an MVP one, really sorry for that issue. In
the next version of the app, I should be able to do a better filter method!
Best. Théo.

