Review of SoundCloud for the iPad using a Screen Reader
From: Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 5:10 AM
To: tahahaa...@gmail.com
Subject: Review of SoundCloud for the iPad using a Screen Reader
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Review of SoundCloud for the iPad using a Screen Reader
10-10-2013 01:20 PM BST
Body:
This App was analysed on 14 March 2013 on an iPad 2 running iOS 6.
At the time of testing the app version was 2.4.7
Background
I am in my early twenties and I have no light perception, I therefore rely on
speech and Braille output when accessing gadgets such as the iPhone and iPad. I
have been using iOS devices for around 18 months and I have really enjoyed
keeping up with the way the devices have enhanced the lives of blind and
partially sighted people. One example being the ability to access social
networking Apps, such as Facebook, twitter and SoundCloud. I chose to review
the accessibility of the SoundCloud App with VoiceOver because I found it an
interesting way of sharing messages with my friends and followers.
Information about the App
The SoundCloud App is free to download from the App store and is a useful tool
for sharing your favourite music, podcasts and any other audio clips you have.
Users can connect with their friends on Facebook, twitter and tumbler.
When downloading the App, I was able to access the App store using VoiceOver
with no problems.
Setting up
When I opened the App for the first time, I found that as I did not have a
SoundCloud account, I needed to register with the service provider. I was able
to do this with no problem. In order to get set up with followers SoundCloud
wanted access to my Facebook account, however, I was able to skip this step and
proceed onto setting up my profile. Once this was done, I was able to go ahead
and explore the App. Although there was a help section, I found that I did not
need to refer to it, as everything on screen was easy to follow.
Using the App
Once the App was all set up the way I wanted it, I began to explore what was
around me on the screen. I found that the screen was split in two, on the left
hand side, I had the various pages of the App and on the right hand side I was
able to view my selected page.
The first section was a ‘you’ page, in this section, I was able to view all my
information, any content that I had posted and saved as drafts. I was able to
edit my user profile as I wished. However, I was disappointed to discover that
the buttons were not labelled correctly, in that no item was labelled as a
button. The only way for me to find out if they were buttons was to double tap
the item and see if anything happened.
The second page was a stream page, on this page, I was able to see what my
followers had posted. Unfortunately, I was not able to explore this area in
detail as I had no followers at the time of testing.
Then there was an activity section, which gave me the option to view what other
people had said about my clips and posted content. Unfortunately I was not able
to test the accessibility of this as I had not posted any content.
Finally there was a search section, this enabled me to search for any content
on SoundCloud, such as people or clips. I was also able to filter the results
to show just clips, just people or both. This part of the App was not as
accessible as it could have been. When I got a list of profiles, double tapping
the name of the profile actually opened the person’s profile, but this was not
labelled as a button or gave me any indication that it was a button. However,
the ‘follow’ button was labelled correctly, so I was able to follow a person
with no difficulty.
On every page on the bottom right corner there was a record button which was
labelled as ‘rec iPad button’. This initially confused me, but I quickly
learned what it was. The process of recording a clip was straight forward, and
I was able to pause my recording with a 2 finger double tap, which is the
typical gesture to start/stop an action using VoiceOver. On the bottom left
hand side of the screen, there were the play back controls, ‘previous,
‘play/pause’ and ‘next’.
Advantages and disadvantages
I really liked the simplicity of the App and the fact that everything was
really easy to follow and find. However, as a VoiceOver user, I did find it
slightly confusing when trying to find buttons, this was mainly as a result of
the inconsistency of button labelling. For example, some items which were
buttons were not labelled as buttons, but then others were. Also, if a person
was new to an Apple product, they may not be familiar with VoiceOver, so it may
not have even occurred to them to try and double tap the item under their
finger.
Also, the layout of the App was a bit strange. On the majority of Apps that
I’ve used, the different tabs or pages of the App are shown horizontally across
the bottom of the screen. However in this case they were displayed vertically
on the left hand side of the screen, which did throw me a little bit.
However, generally this is a really good App and I am extremely pleased the
developers of the App have made this App mostly accessible for VoiceOver users.
As this is a free App to download, I would definitely recommend other VoiceOver
users to download the App and see if it works for them as well as it worked for
me. Audioboo is another App that enables users to share audio content, but
unlike SoundCloud, you cannot share music videos by other users or clips posted
by your followers.
Any other comments
In order to make the user experience more efficient, I would recommend that the
developers make sure that their button labelling is consistent and if possible,
they should try and change the layout to mirror other Apps currently on the
market.
Conclusion
The SoundCloud App enables a user to share their favourite music and audio
clips with their followers and they are also able to follow other users who
share content that interests them. It is free to download from the App store
and it is mostly accessible. Despite the inconsistency in button labelling, the
App is extremely easy to use and follow. As a blind user, I would like to see
all buttons labelled correctly, which would make my user experience more
efficient and I'm positive that new VoiceOver users would really benefit from
this change as well.
Category: Radio shows and music
Published: 14/03/2013 09:07
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