Contrary opinion - ruining or fixing 6+ apps

[Scatabrain]

I am personally having a hard time with the new 6+ update for apps including the iMore app as I am with lots of other apps.

Many have been at the door with pitchforks demanding developers redo their apps for the larger screens.

Those of us with sight difficulties loved the zoomed apps. For once we could comfortably read them. What many thought were 'ugly apps' were actually very much appreciated by some of us who could now comfortably read our screens. That's why some of us bought the bigger screens. Not to jam more content but so we could see the content better.

There is potentially a happy solution for all of us. Developers obey the Zoom setting! If the phone is zoomed don't give us the same tiny font. And consider a font size choice. Some of us really need it. And if you don't want to do that then obey the bigger font choice in phone settings. It's called Dynamic Text. Use it to its fullest!

And take a hint from Apple and try this: open an email and rotate to landscape. What do you see? Bigger text! Some of us need this - a lot. Don't design your app or web page with the same tiny font in landscape that you used in portrait! Or at least take a hint by our zoom setting and give those of us that need it some help. Even Apple has a bug in their App Store app when viewing zoomed. Some of the sub titles are partially hidden right at the top of some of the pages. Considering Apple thinks about accessibility more then most and can miss a detail like this it's no wonder devs are not even thinking about the zoomed setting and why a user would choose it as something beyond a weird aesthetic choice.

Each day a couple of apps 'fix' themselves for 6+ and my big screen advantage is erased. Now I'm carrying an oversized phone that is actually more difficult to see.

The iPhone above any other is designed to be accessible by all but the developers have to be aware and work with this ideal to make the experience something we can all enjoy at its fullest.

I am going to open up Xcode this week and do some testing myself to see what / how developers can respond to a user's zoom display setting. And maybe a little googling and reading Apple docs as well.

I will post about what I find but right now I feel like a very small nearsighted voice with very little chance of making myself heard by the devs that create the apps I use daily. It's worth the exercise anyway.

Cheers, @Scatabrain

 

[BlazingGold]

You're right. Though I think the main benefit to the larger screen, for most, is the ability to put MORE info on the screen rather than just bigger text, there should be consideration when one has the "zoom" setting activated. It really should be something that makes apps (native and third party ones) more convenient and taking advantage of the larger display in ways that the user has set !

 

[Scatabrain]

That sounds right in theory but even Apple is inconsistent with dynamic text. Look at the mail app before and after setting the font size. Only some fields in the header change but the body of the email does not. The zoom feature is new. The split view is new. Size classes are new. If you rotate to landscape an any phone the body text gets bigger. It's based on the available space. The width is bigger so the font allows itself to get bigger. On the 6 + this is more noticeable in zoom mode (as it changes to the lower size class). To me this is a clue that apple is working with available real estate for layout rather then dynamic text that is a year old. Setting my phone to zoomed says 'I need everything bigger' not just some of the text where possible. That's a much stronger view in my opinion then the font setting. I would take either but I would bet that letting the next size class scale up sounds a heck of a lot easier then laying the app out for truly dynamic text. This would largely not be easy for ui element layouts. As opposed to just letting another size class scale everything up. I have to find time to test this all out for myself.