Why iOS 7 Is Making Some Users Feel 'Sick'

dryriver sends this story from The Guardian: "The introduction of fake zooms, parallax, sliding and other changes in Apple's new iPhone and iPad software has a very real effect on people with vestibular disorders. ... It makes frequent use of zoom and slide animations; the home screen boasts parallax, with icons apparently floating above subtly animating wallpaper. And it's making people sick. Triggers and symptoms vary, but TidePool mobile app developer Jenni Leder's experience is not uncommon. A self-professed power-user, she frequently switches apps; but on iOS 7, this has caused headaches and feelings associated with motion sickness. 'I now have to close my eyes or cover the screen during transitions, which is ridiculous,' she told The Guardian, adding that there's nowhere to hide: 'It's not apps that affect me, but accessing them. Tap a folder and the view zooms in. Tap an app and it's like flying through the icon and landing in that app's micro world — and I'm getting dizzy on the journey there.' Reactions to screen-based systems — especially those utilizing 3D effects — aren't new. Cynthia Ryan, executive director of the Vestibular Disorders Association, says 3D effects can cause 'intense nausea, dizziness and vertigo,' sometimes from general vision problems, but also from visual-vestibular conflict. She added symptoms 'manifest more severely if a viewer already has a disorder of the vestibular system.'"

Comments

Re:Can't you turn the effects off?

[jo_ham]

This story has been posted for about 2 minutes, so this will look ridiculous posting this soon, but Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion

Re:I for one welcome our new vomit-inducing Overlo

[Anonymous Coward]

Blame it on Jobs all you want, but if he said it, Apple users would have been parroting the same thing within hours.

Re:Classic vs iOS7 Slider ?

[QuantumLeaper]

When does Apple not copy someone else?

Re:Can't you turn the effects off?

[jo_ham]

The zooming and sliding that hasn't been a problem in iOS up until this point, aye.

Suddenly it's causing nausea for some reason.

Come on!

[patchouly]

If you can't use a device without getting nauseous, then don't use it. I like the new effects. Companies can't build all devices, keeping those with vestibular disorders in mind.

Re:Can't you turn the effects off?

[jo_ham]

There you go again. Why don't you take the time to read the article?

This wasn't the case under iOS 6. That system wasn't devoid of triggers (full-screen slide transitions being fairly common), but zooming was minimal and parallax was absent, as were gamified animation effects such as subtly shifting and sliding balloons in Messages.

Right, so the parallax effect (that is able to be turned off) wasn't present, the slide transitions are the same, yet now causing issues.

The two new vomit inducing features seem to be screen zoom (which changed from centre-only whole screen to one side or the other on a per-icon basis), and the 'jostling' speech bubbles in iMessage.

You can quote the article, but it doesn't make it any more true.

Either way I'm sure Apple will address this with an "ultra flat mode" in an update that disables all the effects - they have already had complaints from non-vomiting people that the zoom animations take too long before the UI becomes responsive to commands. I expect they'll change the behaviour when they address that.

Re: Can't you turn the effects off?

[aristotle-dude]

That only affects parallax in the home screen and very few other types of "motion" in the UI. It does nothing to stop the "zoom" effects that happen when you wake the device start an app, or do anything that was fine in iOS 6 but annoying now even if you don't have this medical condition because it makes you wait a second all over the place for the stupid animation to complete.

Your boss wanted me to tell you to put down your f'ing phone and get back to work you lazy bum. Seriously to get "sick", you would already have to be so mentally ill that you are spending the majority of your waking moments on your phone switching apps. Either get a job or do the job you already have.