AI Reader
Integrating Apple Intelligence into the Magnifier app to create a smarter, faster, and more intuitive experience for users with visual impairments.
How might we improve the navigation experience in Apple’s Magnifier app for users with visual impairments, enabling them to access specific sections of text more precisely, quickly, and intuitively?
♦ I organized and a series of collaborative brainstorming sessions to pinpoint the core opportunities of improvement using social listening as a key method to uncover user pain points
♦ I conducted in-depth research into how visually impaired users interact with digital tools, including reviewing academic papers, analyzing user studies, and gathering relevant statistics.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 2.2 billion people globally experience some form of vision impairment or blindness.Everyday tasks such as reading, navigating, and accessing information can be significant challenges. Many rely on tools and technology to enhance their interaction with the world.
Assistive technologies, such as the Magnifier app on Apple devices, provide essential tools for individuals with visual impairments. These tools are not just about improving convenience—they are critical to maintaining autonomy, access to information, and participation in society
After reading reviews and gathering insights, we identified a key pain point: Navigating the text itself can be difficult and inefficient.
This survey indicated that 45% of visually impaired iOS users indicated that they find navigating large blocks of text in apps to be particularly difficult, especially when they need to locate specific information.
This report found that 80% of individuals with visual impairments report difficulties with navigation and accessing text on digital platforms, even with assistive technologies like screen readers and magnifiers.
This survey found that 60% of users felt that assistive apps like Magnifier could be significantly improved with better precision in zooming and more intuitive navigation controls.
Now, imagine this: You’re at a restaurant you’ve never been to before. The menu is in front of you, but you can’t see it.You’re hungry, and you just want to quickly find the appetizers or the specials. In the past, you had to rely on someone else to read the entire menu to you—or fumble your way with technology that doesn’t quite meet your needs.
The visually impaired user opens their phone and navigates to the Magnifier app via screen reader.
The user selects the 'reader' option, and the screen reader starts reading the entire menu aloud.
Problem: The user has to either listen to the entire menu again, rely on their memory to recall a specific dish, or struggle with the fast-forward and rewind buttons. What if there was a faster way to do this?
We decided to remove the rewind and fast-forward buttons from the reader interface and replace them with a pause and close button for a cleaner, more intuitive experience. At any time, users can hold down the lock button to activate Smart Intelligence and ask Siri any question about the menu.
Once the AI feature is activated, the user's question appears in a bubble at the top of the screen.
Siri's AI capabilities allow users to ask questions and receive clear, context-aware responses. This enhancement makes it easier for users to navigate long passages of text, greatly improving accessibility and overall usability.
This Magnifier app redesign project was an incredibly rewarding and eye-opening experience that reinforced my commitment to inclusive design. Leading the research into visual impairment and understanding how users interact with assistive technology gave me a deeper empathy for the challenges visually impaired individuals face daily.