The recent pastime of commuting has turned into a “magic exercise” where you can control your Apple Watch with just a tap of your thumb and index finger without a wand.
Every year in May is exciting, not only is it a holiday, but the third Thursday is “Global Accessibility Awareness Day”, which means that Apple will bring unexpected interactive methods, and there are new “magic” to play. This year, “Love Faner” once again talked to Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of global accessibility policy and actions, to explore how the new “magic” just announced was “changed”.
No matter how big Apple is, the development function is still very “personal”
The most surprising new accessibility feature this year is Apple Watch Mirroring. Simply put, this is to “project the screen” of the Apple Watch interface to the iPhone.
In addition to the slightly enlarged version of the Apple Watch interface that users can directly click on the iPhone, users can also control the watch through the original iPhone support auxiliary functions – voice control, head tracking control and switching control. Users who are inconvenient to touch the Apple Watch with their fingers can also find a more suitable way to use it. Although it sounds reasonable now, how did Apple think in the first place, did not think that everything originated from a certain user:
We have a user with cerebral palsy, and he told us that every time a new Apple Watch is launched, he wants to use it when he hears the introduction of various new features, especially the health function, but he has limited mobility and cannot use the Apple Watch like other people. He would have switched controls to the iPhone, so we naturally wanted him to use these (Apple Watch) actions with familiar accessibility features.
After Apple introduced features in a system update later this year, he can finally use Apple Watch heart rate/blood oxygen detection, meditation, sleep detection and other health functions. But Apple’s accessibility team is not only inspired by “individuals”. Herrlinger said that in order to do a good job in barrier-free design, in addition to reading user letters, customer service feedback and referring to the opinions of various disability organizations, another very important key is to hire disabled employees:
(We) don’t just build (accessibility features) for them, we build features with them.
Only by closely connecting with users can we discover a steady stream of pain points.
Unusual “crossover” to create innovations that only Apple can have
Another important new feature this year is Door Detection. A door detection function in the amplifier app mode helps the visually impaired solve the “last steps” problem. This feature recognizes the “door” through the iPhone/iPad camera, and informs the user how far the door is now, whether the door is open or closed, and how to open the door (push, pull, or turn the handle).
ā² Identification display: closed door, 8 feet away, text information “MUFFIN TO WRITE HOME ABOUT BAKERY”.
This mode also reads information on the door and surrounding signs, such as door numbers or accessibility signs. It doesn’t sound too complicated, but it involves radar and on-device machine learning in addition to lenses.
The two teams have many projects other than accessibility design, but they will work together for users to create features that only Apple can do.
In addition to this project, Apple’s accessibility team usually facilitates many “crossovers”. Herrlinger said that Apple has a “significant” accessibility team with “experts in design assistive technology” to create accessibility technologies such as narration, switch control, and voice control that run through Apple’s products. The team also collects ideas from the entire company, cooperates with various Apple engineering teams to develop new features, and rooted accessibility in the entire ecosystem:
Our accessibility team and other teams are always working closely together. Therefore, we will not regard accessibility as a single application or operating system, but fully integrated into the software and hardware ecosystem, which is Apple’s unique advantage.
See tomorrow’s interactive “magic” in advance at the Apple Imagination Center
Some people say that the meaning of art is not in every piece of work in the museum, but in bringing new perspectives and ways of thinking to human beings. Barrier-free design also has the same effect, taking us to places we didnāt expect, and walking through functions that we didnāt expect to be able to use in this way. , and constantly expand the collective imagination of scientific and technological innovation.
Apple’s Accessibility Team is like a center of imagination – exploring “extreme” needs, connecting product teams to solve “impossible tasks”, and driving innovation.
Remember “Magic Gestures”? In fact, it is the accessibility feature “gesture control” that Apple introduced for the Apple Watch last year. By making a fist or lightly pinching your fingers, you can control the Apple Watch with one hand. For users who are inconvenient to use the other hand to tap the screen or have hand tremors, there is another way to use it. Although it was originally an auxiliary function for accessibility, but It was so popular that Apple announced that it would launch “Quick Actions” based on this technology.
Later this year, users can use the “twice pinch” gesture to answer or hang up calls, take pictures, control music playback, and start/pause training.
Now I also hope to develop more quick actions to allow more users to use quick actions, but not necessarily the disabled.
Perhaps with the expansion of the types of quick operations, “magic gestures” can also be popularized like AirPods “tap” headset control. Of course, this isn’t the first time accessibility has gone “mainstream.”
iPadOS supports Bluetooth/wired mouse control. Although it was an auxiliary function at first, it is also very popular. As for the “real-time subtitles” feature that will be launched later this year, I believe it will become an auxiliary function that many people will use. iPhone, iPad and Mac will support real-time transcribing of any audio, be it phone calls, FaceTime, video or social media, and real-time subtitle generation is device-based to ensure information privacy and security.
That’s why there’s always another focus on accessibility updates. Breakthroughs in hardware technology have their own “hard-core romance”, and solutions that burst out with accessibility needs reflect the infinite possibilities of imagination, and can always allow people to experience the interactive “magic” that changes tomorrow at the earliest.
(This article is reproduced with permission from Ai Faner; source of the first image: Apple)