Loading spinners etc

By Weather Gods (Scott), 10 October, 2016

Forum

App Development and Programming

Hi All,

In our weather app we have a spinner for when the weather data is loading. the spinner will keep spinning until the data returns on we have a time out.

What's the best way of approaching this from an accessibility point of view?

Got a couple of ideas:

1. Announce 'Loading' periodically

2. Have some audible feedback like the wheel spinning

Any other ideas?

Thanks
Scott

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Comments

a simple text label should do it

I've found that making the element just say "loading" is a good idea. By leaving out the repetition, you avoid irritating people. If we want to check, we can just look at the item again. If a percentage is available, it can be useful to show that, but I'm assuming that that's not the case this time. It would be ideal to ensure that the loading does go away in all cases; I've had some apps say loading even after they should have figured out they've timed out.

Thanks Nathan.

I'll make sure we just say 'Loading' once

Develop with VoiceOver enabled

Hi. one of the best ways to learn about how your app can be made accessible is to turn VoiceOver on, and listen to how it sounds. Use it like a blind person would use it, and then you can tweak it a bit more. like, with the example of the spinner, you would probably only want it to say something like loading, or loading weather data, just a really short phrase like that, and have it only be spoken once. The last thing a VoiceOver user wants is to have to hear the same phrase over and over, the same way a sighted user wouldn't want some kind of popup getting in their way all the time, getting in the way of things. So, while you're developing, turn VoiceOver on by clicking the home button 3 times. If that doesn't work, go to settings/general/accessibility/VoiceOver, and enable VoiceOver there. Don't worry, you can always turn it off when you're done by clicking the home button 3 times. Also, if you need any beta testers for accessibility, i'm sure you'd get plenty of folks here willing to help including me. I've beta tested several apps, and would love to help if/when you get to that stage in the game.

another suggestion

Maybe have a hint for those of us with hints on, something like "touch to hear progress" We can just touch it to hear the progress, or if it "times out."

Thanks for the comments

Thanks for the comments Toonhead and KE7ZUM.

As it's just a spinner I'm going to go for a simple 'Loading' audio. If it times out or there is an error then there is a different screen.

thanks

Yepm, in a situation like that, you wouldn't want to touch something to find out the progress, that's not very intuitive to the average joe user, or even me and i've been using iOS for about 5 plus years now. The other thing you could do is to play a short beep noise to indicate that the data is loaded. That would mean that VoiceOver wouldn't even have to speak and some folks like that. You could even add that as a preference in the settings, have VoiceOver speak the word loading when weather data is updated, or play a short beep. That shouldn't be too hard to program, other developers have done this when all necessary data is loaded, and it works beautifully.