New reaction outlines and reactions themselves; why not give some more options?

PieBathBob

I understand the purpose of the new reaction outlines for accessibility, having an outline surrounding reactions can make them easier to read for some people. Accessibility changes are never unwelcome, but this is a drastic shift in the UI that many people have reacted harshly to (myself included). In my opinion, the contrast the new design creates can really break up the flow of conversation and make messages feel far too cluttered, especially with the harsh outline created when you use a reaction yourself.

But I don't think that everyone feels this way. 

So my question is, why not make this an option? Light mode is a thing, font scaling is a thing, compact mode is a thing, etc. etc. Providing more options has only made apps more accessible. Perhaps give an option or slider for contrast on emote outlines, or even add one for the size of reactions. One way or the other, I hope you consider this.

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Comments

6 comments

Date Votes
  • le birb

    To add my own experience, while I now appreciate that this may help people read things better, to me the new more in-your-face feeling reactions can even distract and detract from the messages being reacted to. Before, they were present, but definitely not the focus. Now, especially if I add a reaction myself, they are presented with their own special outline and color on the screen, which makes them seem much, much more important then they actually are.

    11
  • Brumbpo
    • Edited

    This change, for me, feels like anti-accessibility. I'm having a harder time reading mentions and such, and the big rectangles around emojis are very distracting and add a lot of noise. Skimming becomes more difficult as my eyes automatically veer to the mentions and rectangles.

    And from a design standpoint it just... looks really bad. The new green is fine, the cyan for the dreaded auto-ping reply thing doesn't match anything else, but at least it's fully legible from a glance.

    I would love a toggle for this. The strange contrast is very unpleasant and actually hurts my eyes a little bit.

    9
  • Robin Roy

    This new update is providing a bad user experience. The new reaction overlay's are hurting eyes. The ping color change is also a bad contrast. Please make this an option and bring back the old design.

    9
  • Faps7eR

    I don't even know why there was a need for an update in the first place. Correct me if I'm wrong but everything was fine the way it was in my perspective. 

    After the new update, I can't see the "pings" clearly and the newly updated reaction overlay doesn't help much with the user experience either as it is way more distracting and doesn't actually look good.

     

    4
  • Spring Heart

    Make it an option. For me, it's VERY distracting. I can't focus on anything but what's highlighted; making it harder for me to read. I already have issues reading fast, this makes it far worst. 

    1
  • emrys

    personally i feel like the main problem is that the stroke/outline is so infrequently used in the UI design that it existing here is jarring; combine that with how SATURATED the colour choice is...? it's a bad combo, and speaking as someone who's wanted an overhaul to the react colours for years BECAUSE of visual inaccessibility, it would have been better done to add more contrast to the main colour of the bubble itself, with the option to make the outline a togglable option in the accessibility settings. 

    2

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