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Fonts are a big issue, but it's not just the web. Two things I hear frequent complaints about are: - low contrast overly thin and small iOS fonts - low contra

Fonts are a big issue, but it's not just the web. Two things I hear frequent complaints about are: - low contrast overly thin and small iOS fonts - low contrast overly thin very small Mac fonts This includes myself but I've had this conversation with multiple other people. My eyesight isn't bad enough to require reading glasses but it's not perfect, and the microfonts throughout Apple software gives me eyestrain quickly. It seems like the glaring white UI and microscopic gray fonts in iOS 7 and OSX Yosemite onward were designed for other designers, and not for users or usability.

matthewmacleod 9y ago
It’s worth pointing out though that iOS has extensive options for enhancing accessibility, like increasing font size and contrast, reducing transparency, removing animations, and so on. To me, this seems like a reasonable compromise.
- notadoc 9y ago
  I made all of those changes on a relatives iPhone and they still struggle to read anything on it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- gnicholas 9y ago
  Unfortunately, many many apps ignore these settings wholesale. I actually did a survey of news apps to see which ones offered any text accessibility options at all (or respected the OS level settings). The results are not good, especially among tech company news readers. https://hackernoon.com/the-importance-of-text-accessibility-in-news-apps-45ac8cca2e9a https://hackernoon.com/the-importance-of-text-accessibility-...
- vacri 9y ago
  If you make a design because it looks good and not because it works well, then you're an artist, not a designer. A designer has to meld form and function. Pencil-thin light grey fonts are a fashion fad, not a thoughtful design choice.
gnicholas 9y ago
> Fonts are a big issue, but it's not just the web. Excellent point, and in iOS apps it's an even bigger problem because third-party accessibility tools cannot affect the way text is displayed in other apps. Neither mobile Safari nor mobile Chrome supports browser extensions that are always-on, in the way that their desktop counterparts do. Instead, you have to tap 2-4 times to activate an extension on every single page you load. And of course, if you want to provide more accessible text in an app other than Safari (Kindle, NYTimes, etc.), there is generally no way to do so. At least with NYTimes, someone could access their mobile site through Safari. Amazon, on the other hand, blocks access to their Kindle web app from nearly every type of mobile device.

matthewmacleod 9y ago

It’s worth pointing out though that iOS has extensive options for enhancing accessibility, like increasing font size and contrast, reducing transparency, removing animations, and so on. To me, this seems like a reasonable compromise.

notadoc 9y ago
I made all of those changes on a relatives iPhone and they still struggle to read anything on it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
gnicholas 9y ago
Unfortunately, many many apps ignore these settings wholesale. I actually did a survey of news apps to see which ones offered any text accessibility options at all (or respected the OS level settings). The results are not good, especially among tech company news readers. https://hackernoon.com/the-importance-of-text-accessibility-in-news-apps-45ac8cca2e9a https://hackernoon.com/the-importance-of-text-accessibility-...
vacri 9y ago
If you make a design because it looks good and not because it works well, then you're an artist, not a designer. A designer has to meld form and function. Pencil-thin light grey fonts are a fashion fad, not a thoughtful design choice.

gnicholas 9y ago

> Fonts are a big issue, but it's not just the web. Excellent point, and in iOS apps it's an even bigger problem because third-party accessibility tools cannot affect the way text is displayed in other apps. Neither mobile Safari nor mobile Chrome supports browser extensions that are always-on, in the way that their desktop counterparts do. Instead, you have to tap 2-4 times to activate an extension on every single page you load. And of course, if you want to provide more accessible text in an app other than Safari (Kindle, NYTimes, etc.), there is generally no way to do so. At least with NYTimes, someone could access their mobile site through Safari. Amazon, on the other hand, blocks access to their Kindle web app from nearly every type of mobile device.