Software Wishlist / UX Gaps - Recent History is Underrated

Here's a short rant / feature request / app-idea for anyone so inclined

 

Problem Statement 

Currently, all too often, too many apps + tools are so "future focussed" that they neglect to show *what happened recently*.

Examples:

* 1) Weather apps by and large only show the forecast for the upcoming 24 hours. 

   Of the ones that do happen to show what has happened recently (e.g. Metservice NZ), they only show what happened up till Midnight on the current day. Which means, as soon as the clock ticks over midnight, you have no idea what happened over the last few hour.s.  The main use-case for something like this is answering the question:  "How 'bad' was the weather while I was asleep / outside doing something?"   (i.e. how hot it got, or how cold it got overnight, or how windy, or how heavy was the rain?)

 

* 2) Event Listing Sites

   AFAIK, *ALL* of the event listing sites here in NZ these days only really show events that haven't started and/or that you can still buy tickets for. There is no way then to find out what that random event you passed by on the way home was about (so that maybe you can try to get tickets next year, or the next time it is on). 

   While I can understand that they may do this as they make their income from showing things they can still earn money for (*), they are really reducing their utility by doing this!   

   (*) I also understand that they might not want to keep paying for hosting of all such things indefinitely may not be a worthwhile expense either!  However, surely leaving things up for at least 24-48 hrs after the scheduled end of an event wouldn't hurt, right? 

  Therefore, for this case, I put them them the proposition:  Your sites are meant to fuel the fire of "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out), leading to people paying for tickets to flock to these things. By refusing to show people "what they have missed on on", you're leaving a whole lot on the table (i.e. all the potential customers who didn't even know what they have missed cannot have had any fear of missing out, as they by missing out, their "fear potential" has been actualised already!) 

  Or to put it in other terms: These sites are neglecting to "play the long game by seeding future demand"! 

 

Proposal

For anyone considering:

A) Doing updates to these services, OR

B)  Creating a startup, but looking for an idea

 

Please seriously give a thought to building a version of these services that shows you the recent past!