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Hahahahaha! #WhatsApp survey question I just received asks:

'How visually appealing is WhatsApp’s design (that is, the way the app looks) to you?'

#whatsapp
in reply to Andre Louis

James Scholes
James Scholes
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To be fair, good visual layout in iOS apps can make a huge difference to my ability to use it productively via touch exploration with VO. I routinely use a particular website made by blind people who apparently didn't pay any attention to that fact, and as a result they've ended up with hundreds of rows in a table on top of each other with no padding, making it impossible to use by moving a finger around.
in reply to James Scholes

Rebecca
Rebecca
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It's interesting to me because there are 2 kinds of users. Ones who always explore by touch and ones who never do. Not much of a happy medium there.
in reply to Rebecca

Andre Louis
Andre Louis
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These days apps are far more complex than they were in 2010, so if you don't explore by touch and at least try to know where common things are, you're going to have a very slow time indeed.
in reply to Andre Louis

Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
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Yep, sometimes, explore by touch is the only thing that would adiquately work in some apps, if VO loses focus or reaches some kind of boundary that doesn't exist, but it decided to do so. Same thing used to happen with talkback and other readers. It's good to know both. Speaking of using that, how would you teach someone the concept of explore by touch? I honestly can't explain it well I suppose, but I am trying to help someone from around here. What do you compare it vs swiping, for example? To me it's just like drawing on your screen, but drawing lines. also I am one of the people who uses explore by touch a lot, and also manages to guess half of the things on the screen if apps are well-made.
in reply to Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺

Rebecca
Rebecca
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@tardis @jscholes Have they used tactile maps? If so you could say it's a little bit like exploring a tactile map but it's just your phone screen. I know speed dots have shut down but when I had them they really helped me orient to my phone at first.
@James Scholes @Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
in reply to Rebecca

Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
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Oh, these never shipped here, well, yeah I tried that approach but I guess they didn't get it, so I tried drawing. It's a person who likes working on a computer, so.
in reply to Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺

James Scholes
James Scholes
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@tardis The majority of physical surfaces a blind person will encounter don't support sequential swiping. Explore by touch has to be the default for restaurant tables, kitchen counters, a new computer, etc. So I don't think you need a fancy explanation for how to find stuff on a screen; they can just be explored like those other things. I'm no teacher though so what do I know. @FreakyFwoof @silverleaf57
@Rebecca @Andre Louis @Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
in reply to James Scholes

Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
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Yeah, trust me, neither am I. But at least I am getting paid. and I better be. I spent three hours trying to make this guy learn how to use iPhone, because he wanted an iPhone. And I could've done something else with my time, too. Plus, he insisted on paying, so, well, I don't deny.
in reply to Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺

Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺
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the three hours were spent trying to disable subscriptions he subscribed to. Because Apple is, well, Apple, and the appstore isn't translated in my language. and then trying to disable the personal data thing icon. and it turns out it needed screen recognition, but I can do it with VO turned off, so go turn on that, swipe a thousand times through settings. and someone setup the iPhone by transfering from android, so now, it's a mess. Even the apps went to transfer. also, Apple photos sucks now. No idea what they did to it, but unless you use explore by touch, you screwed, unless you have like, two photos, but I have at least a few hundred even with the recent cleanup. So, yep, explore by touch in my opinion must be taught to people, the earlier the better. also, it's just easier. Haha.
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