Apple iOS 7 User Interface Reportedly Causing Motion Sickness

1 October 2013

Ben Logan

Director

Passionate about improving services and experiences for the people that use them.

The sharpness of the iOS 7 screen and the motion of its icons are being blamed for cases of motion sickness amongst certain users of Apple’s new operating system.

Headaches, nausea and vertigo are being reported on Apple’s support website from users who have upgraded to iOS 7, which includes dynamic backgrounds and animations that were not present on previous versions of the software.

All the icons displayed on screen are constantly in motion, albeit in a subtle fashion, but this movement against the background is being blamed by experts for causing the vertigo effect, as well as the zoom transition functionality when a user switches between applications.

People are already asking why this problem was not detected in the usability testing process, and the inability to downgrade once the OS has been installed has proved to be a further point of frustration for early adaptors.

For those struggling with Apple’s new user interface, some of the motion effects can be turned off by browsing to Settings and disabling that functionality, but with all the fuss currently being made over the issue, it seems likely that Apple will release a fix update in the future.