Lynnesbian :bune_ylw: @lynnesbian@fedi.lynnesbian.space
Public

why is spotify's accessibility so terrible??

you can't disable animated thumbnail previews in the stupid tiktokesque "trending podcasts" shelf, you can't change the UI scaling (on mobile at least), there's no light theme (or themes of any kind), no setting for "OLED black", you can't change the font...

the only accessibility settings are mono audio and disabling the animated "canvas" things that show up instead of album art.

hot take: if you're a multibillion dollar company, you app needs to have some kind of setting that means when i'm not interacting with anything, the entire app is still, aside from progress bars. even youtube gets this right (animated "doodle" logos notwithstanding...), and that's a video streaming platform! there is no reason for a music app to have looping five frame per second clips of podcasters laughing!!

it feels so demeaning when i have to cover the podcast shelf on the screen with my thumb just so i can read the names of the playlists on my homepage. just let me turn it off :(

tameferret @tameferret@raru.re
Quiet public

@lynnesbianLynnesbian :bune_ylw: from a few years as an app developer for a big company, there are a few contributing factors

- Flashy new things are prioritized over literally everything else, because this draws attention. Accessibility features, while huge for those who need them, will only be perceived by a vast minority of users.

- Dynamic font sizes tend to break a lot of layouts, requiring alternative restructuring of the screen depending if you have this setting on or not, which means more components, more development time, more costs.

- I have personally worked with designers who knew nothing about accessibility. Hell, I'm working with native iOS now, and I've lost count of how many designers only knew web, despite the company having almost 20 apps!

- Statistics and usability tests are pulled from whoever's ass is talking at the moment. They think a bottom sheet is the best way to implement this feature? They will require a bottom sheet for this feature.

- A lot of decision-making people know shit about accessibility unless they're personally affected by it. Seriously. The only reason some people I work with are starting to look at these things is because one of the higher ups needs a bigger font size, and the entire app exploded in a gory mess of colors in his hands because none of it was planned nor implemented properly.

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