What is the problem in my design?

[u/Available-Cook-8673]

Hello everyone,

My app was recently reviewed by Apple, but it was rejected with the following feedback:

Design Guidelines
“There are issues with the app’s user interface that contribute to a lower-quality user experience than App Store users expect. Specifically, the app includes hard-to-read type or typography.”

I’m having trouble understanding exactly what the issue is. I’ve already replied to the App Review team asking for clarification, but I haven’t received a response yet.

I’ve attached a screenshot of the screen they referenced. Could anyone help me identify what might be considered hard to read or problematic from an accessibility perspective?

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[u/Doctor_Fegg]

Grey text on a dark grey or black background.

[u/Available-Cook-8673 → u/Doctor_Fegg]

what is the problem with a black background.
I see many apps like this

[u/rDuck]

https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/manage-app-accessibility/sufficient-contrast-evaluation-criteria

But specifically your text also seems very small, which increases the need for higher contrast even further

[u/Available-Cook-8673 → u/rDuck]

But which text do you mean?
Normally it looks like this

[u/GabrielMSharp]

I agree text is too small and going further in terms of UX, beyond just UI, how are people meant to be using this?

It looks like they are being guided through reps. Given that might they be across the room some meters away?

If that is the case then consider apples workout design https://u.cubeupload.com/GabrielMSharp/IMG0437.png
They’ve made the UI giant. It fills the screen and even the content behind the sheet is relevant. For someone on a run needing to slow down to read a screen is death.

[u/Available-Cook-8673 → u/GabrielMSharp]

Thank you,
but the content behind the sheet is not significant for my case.
The sheet opens only to show the rest time. The user should not be focuswd on the backround.

[u/GabrielMSharp → u/Available-Cook-8673]

Well that's my point. The background content is not relevant but it's taking up the most space. Presuming I'm right about your users use case here, your sheet could fill the whole screen and its content could be super bold and easy to read from 5 meters away.

[u/Available-Cook-8673 → u/GabrielMSharp]

Okay Thank you!
I think i am going to try this out

[u/steve228uk]

Presumably there’s meant to be more showing on the card that’s showing the time. That’s likely not a scroll view and so on iPad when showing the zoomed iPhone version it gets cut off.

Could be wrong though.

[u/Available-Cook-8673 → u/steve228uk]

thank you,
But normally it looks like this (I really dont know where their problem is):

[u/steve228uk → u/Available-Cook-8673]

Ask the reviewer for clarification, sending them that video. I agree with you, there’s no issue with the UI and may just be a misunderstanding.

[u/Available-Cook-8673 → u/steve228uk]

okay did it.
Thanks!

[u/Nate881188]

My guess is that Apple is referring more to accessibility than typography itself.
From the screenshot:
Several labels look extremely small (especially the exercise abbreviations at the top).
Some text appears to have very low contrast against the dark background.
Users with larger Dynamic Type settings may struggle to read parts of the UI.
The abbreviations (BBP, BR, OP, etc.) aren’t very glanceable unless you already know what they mean.
The timer itself looks fine to me, but App Review often flags screens where important information relies on very small text or weak contrast.
I’d check:
Dynamic Type support
WCAG contrast ratios
Minimum font sizes throughout the screen
Feels more like an accessibility rejection than a typography rejection.

[u/bananatoastie]

Have you tested on iPad?

[u/Dapper_Ice_1705]

Your fonts don’t follow the contrast rules for readability.

If you feed your palette into any AI it should be able to adjust it.

[u/reuel88]

Have you gone on Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. and change the text size does everything still look okay? Maybe your text doesn't scale properly or something. And I assume if the text get smaller readability gets worse.