I wrote a weather app and would appreciate feedback on my accessibility support

By MuseumShuffle, 7 April, 2023

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello AppleVis members!

I had a wonderful experience here asking for feedback about my last app (Foodlapse). I wrote another app called Please Don't Rain that I would love feedback on concerning my accessibility support.

When I had an upcoming day that was important to me I got sick of looking up the weather for it over and over again. With Please Don't Rain you can choose a place and a day and you’ll get details about the weather for that day that will continue to update automatically if you have the Pro version.

I spent a lot of time on my accessibility support. I spent the most time on having UI adjust for the largest dynamic type sizes and also on my VoiceOver support. I added audio graph support for my charts. This was the first time I've ever done this so there was a strong "I have no idea what I'm doing" factor in play.

The app is free to try and a good chunk of the functionality can be accessed from the free version. I'm including five codes for the Pro version for 3 months for free. These are auto-renewing subscriptions by default so make sure to turn that off if you don't want to keep using the Pro version after 3 months. Thank you in advance for any feedback!

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  • KJFN4XWTFM3M
  • N3AJ7M3F97E9
  • XL4NPMHMP6XE
  • 364KXXRJMRHN

Apple requests that we include this disclosure when giving out free promo codes. I'm attaching the USA one by default.

Promo Codes expire on Fri May 05 15:00:53 PDT 2023 and are redeemable only on the App Store for United States. Requires an Apple ID, subject to prior acceptance of license and usage terms. To create an Apple ID, you must be age 13 (or equivalent minimum age in your Home Country, as set forth in the registration process) and in United States. Compatible software and hardware, and internet access (fees may apply) required. Not for resale. Full terms apply; see www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/. For more information, see https://support.apple.com/apps. This app is provided to you by Apple Inc. - Christopher Wu

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Comments

By Pax on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

they are just buttons but they have the same name, it is confusing,as you have 1 section for 2 people most of the time, it is my only problem.
the app is accessible and great. I used the code for premium.

By Brooke on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

I've just installed the app and used one of the codes. I'll follow up later today with feedback!

By MuseumShuffle on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

Thanks Pax. I changed the VoiceOver label for the umbrella symbol to be "Precipitation chance". I also changed the text to indicate which Mastodon link is which if a section is for two people. Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for trying my app Brooke!

By Daniel Angus MacDonald on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

it’s a good app. however, there is no way to switch from imperial to metric. I am in Canada. the buttons to go to the previous and next pages in the tutorial, are too verbose. they should be just previous and next instead of what they are.

By MuseumShuffle on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

Thanks Daniel. If you go to the Settings tab there is a section called "Units of Measurement" that will let you select celsius, centimeters, kilometers per hour, etc. I couldn't have the app automatically change units for the locale because the framework for creating charts doesn't support it yet.

I'll make that change to the tutorial you suggested.

Thank you for the feedback.

By Daniel Angus MacDonald on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

great work so far! I’ll look in settings.

By Daniel Angus MacDonald on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - 05:25

when the colors are read, VoiceOver says, “switch to the next color when it should say switch to color name

By MuseumShuffle on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

I just realized that in my interface to select an image for each weather condition I don't add the "isSelected" trait to the selected image and it's kind of clunky how I'm letting the user know what is the selected image. I'll fix that in the next build also.

Thanks again for the tips!

By Daniel Angus MacDonald on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

I’m always happy to test and provide feedback, for new apps especially

By David Goodwin on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

Hi there Christopher,

Thank you for sharing news of your new app with us and for ensuring that it has VoiceOver support. We appreciate your efforts towards making your apps accessible to all users.

If someone who has downloaded and used the app could take a few moments to add it to our App Directory, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you once again for sharing your app with us and the promo codes. We look forward to hearing more about your future projects and developments.

By MuseumShuffle on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

Thanks so much David. So glad that I got pointed to AppleVis during a lab with Apple engineers. It is such a great resource!

By Ekaj on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

I have yet to try out your app, but it looks promising. Even with Apple gift cards I am on kinda a tight budget, but I'll definitely give your free trial a go and see what I can do. So many great and enticing apps for us to choose from that it can and has been difficult for me at times, lol. But thank you for developing this app and posting here. I've gotten so much out of AppleVis ever since I joined in 2013. I enjoy testing things for accessibility, and am hoping for a job in the field eventually.

By TheBlindDragon on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

Awesome! I will give the app a try! which codes are taken?

By Dominic on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

I’ve chosen to date, 12 May, which is my mum’s birthday to be honest on Friday, 12 May,, but I can’t choose the place. I don’t know how. I’ve already selected the date, but I can’t select the place if you know what I mean.

By MuseumShuffle on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

Hi Dominic.

You specify the place on the same page that has the date. To specify the place you would tap/touch/etc either "No Place Selected" text or the plus symbol that is near the "No Place Selected". If you're using a large accessibility text size the plus symbol is above "No Place Selected" and if you're not it will be to the right of "No Place Selected".

By MuseumShuffle on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

I'm adding the ability to share the weather forecast. I'm generating a pretty image that has the data in it. An example is here. (blue on blue will not be the default colors)

I know from experience that I don't want to just share an image because that would leave out blind or low vision users. So my plan is to by default share the image and plain text that has the same forecast information. I'd have a setting so that you can use just the image or just the text when you share a forecast if that's your preference.

Here's what I'm fuzzy on: Since I'm defaulting to sharing an image forecast and plain text forecast should I add some "alt text" for the image that says "hey, this image contains this forecast info" or is that overkill?

By mendi on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

Would it be possible to have the ability to track more than one day/place at the same time? I had put an event that is way out into the future and then realized an earlier one and then realized I could only add one date at once. If not I get it, but just a thought, as summer season seems to have a lot of events going on, never mind come holiday season the same thing happens.

By MuseumShuffle on Friday, May 5, 2023 - 05:25

Hi Mendi! I don't have any plans for that at the moment. Since the app is geared towards tracking your one special day it would require a rewrite of most of the app. It's something I'll keep in mind for the future.