iCal 5.0 - washed out dates unreadable

We're all in agreement (obviously) on the problem with iCal. However - the REAL problem is not iCal at all. It's that Apple's development team AND the managers are not interested in the users' use of the product. I'm referring to functionality, productive use of time, etc. In some cases, some of us can't use it at all because of sloppy design.

In short, it doesn't matter how technically adept developers are, if the product doesn't meet OUR needs properly. I'm not just referring to iCal, but ALL software which purports to be designed to save us time and make our lives or businesses run more smoothly.

Furthermore, extremely profitable companies like Apple take their eye off the ball (that is, meeting customers' needs). I think much of the profit margin comes from too many consumers being too willing to constantly keep buying new hardware and software.

As someone who is on an extreme budget (largely BECAUSE of my difficulty with Apple's database products - Filemaker Pro and Bento), I do not have the ability to keep buying their overpriced products.

Much of what I say applies to other companies too. Let's create a consumer / business activist group to force them start doing what we've been asking for.

I am less vehement in my response. Generally speaking I think apple has done more than most developers to integrate usability for a diverse range of abilities and disabilities into their products. iCal is definitely a miss. I don't use the other prgrams you have mentioned, so I can't honestly comment on them. What I find surprising is how such obvious issues pass through their testing phases and actually get released. If the program were configurable, none of use would even be having this conversation.

To add traffic to the post, here's another "me too". I have (almost...) perfect eyesight, but iCal (in osx 10.7.3) is still very painful to use. The washedout fonts and lines, especially in the Month view, make me want to go to my iPhone as mush as possible instead of the big super-duper external monitor I have. The thing is a pain to read, and when you have multiple events per day, with colored boxes everywhere, one has a really hard time locating (and reading) the dates and even the boxes for the days. As much as I love Lion and all the good things with it, just as much I hate the new iCal.

Yet another "me too" here. Not only are the washed out greys of the date numbers unreadable, but I find that the black text on top of very transparent color bars (for full-day or multi-day events), or black text next to a colored dot, is *much* less readable than the old 10.6 version, which had less transparent bars with white text, or text in the actual color of the calendar. Add to that the really terrible leather "skin" (which I replaced very quickly with the old Aluminum style), and iCal really is quite a terrible app from Mac currently.

Just give me the version that was in 10.6, and I'll be happy. Or fix the current version (some flexibility in setting things up would be great).

Otherwise I'm off to google calendar.

And another "Me Too". I have been using the Mac OS in it's various modifications since MacOS 6 back in 1988 but the recent modifications make me wonder.

Yes, one of the nice things about this GU has always been it elegance and slickness but slickness in particular as well in the sense of functionality.

The washed out numbers of iCal may look stylish but make the entire app unusable for many of us and I am not sure if this feature does not harm the eye sight of many others.

The company's arrogance to remain silent spite of all the complaints disqualifies the ancient pioneer of ergonomics and leaves many among us startled, sad and angry.😠

I'm just reading (well listening to) Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast And Slow". He has just been discussing the research results on "cognitive strain" and "cognitive ease". He specifically talks about experiments where a brain teaser is presented in very clear, or fuzzy (poor contrast etc) fonts. You are more likely to get the puzzle correct when presented in a fuzzy font as this causes your cognitive system (what he calls system 2) to kick in from the start instead of answering with system 1, which is more intuitive and likely to respond with the wrong answer the brain teaser temps you with (e.g. the classic "a toy ball and bat cost $1.10, the bat costs $1 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?" if that is in a clear bold font you are more likely to say $0.10 which is wrong).

He also makes it clear humans can only do ONE task requiring cognitive strain at a time (this is why you will stop talking while driving if a difficult passing maneuver comes up or you enter a confusing intersection). So even for the folks that can use iCal the way it is, doing so will cause them to lose their train of thought on other things. This is exactly the effect you do NOT want for something like a calendar where you don't want to have to think about it and just want to check a date or your schedule. Using this horrible UI forces interaction to be with system 2, when you want it to be with system 1.

This is not just a case of personal preference (or even the ability to use the product at all), its a matter of poor design even for those that are able to use it. It will cause cognitive strain and thus be a distraction from whatever subject you were thinking about, that goes unnoticed even for folks with good enough vision to use it. According to Kahneman, this app is contrary to what we know about cognition.

Like everyone else I have been trying to work around the "Washed out Dates" issues in iCal. I have tried the "solutions” suggested by others and they just do Not solve the problems. Thanks for the suggestions though, it was worth the try. Like everyone else I am waiting for Apple to step up to the plate on this one.

Apple needs to install a font and Line control feature to iCal.

I will join the conversation and say that after about 5 days on Lion, I'm looking for ways to make iCal more readable also. I've deepened the calendar colors, which helps only a little. I join the many other post-ers who are calling for Apple to fix this. I'm in iCal multiple times a day while I'm working and am frankly dismayed that this iteration of iCal got by the many eyes who must have seen it before it was bundled in with Lion. I expect continued improvement in applications, and while I realize that at times improvements are in the eye of the beholder, it's hard to imagine how any perceptive interface designer could have written this version of iCal, let alone signed off on it.

Here we are ... 10.7.4 and July 2012, very nearly a year after Mr Hague was promised this would be fixed. Wake up Apple, this is the 21st century and this ranks right up there on the list of blunders that others love to draw attention to. I've seen most of those blunders since I've been an Apple user since Lisa.

I wasn't too vocal about it while on Snow Leopard, thinking it must've been fixed on the newer platform ... nope, still a bunch of useless garbage. And like others, this one impacts us all constantly each day, there's no way around it ... good or poor sighted, this is just hard on the eyes! The first year application designer idiot who thought silver on white was somehow useful or attractive in some weird way needs to grow up. Usability should be 95% of the designer's mandate and this one fails miserably ... 100%!

So now I too have just called tech support to add my voice to all of the other posters here ... please Apple, fix iCal I am glad, though, to hear about alternative applications though.

I am not visually impaired and I can't tell what time my appointments are or what day I am looking at. . I am becoming vERY frustrated with everything about this Lion and my new macbook pro. have been in the shop and trouble shooting on my own continuously since I got it PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE!!

I'm old and my vision is not the best, I think Apple doesn't want old people using their products. They want this to be a younger generation product. By making it difficult to see and read what is happening, us older folks will go somewhere else.

I know a lot of Apple workers have spent contless hours tring to make this work. They all finally gave up and figured it was a design problem.

I generally like Lion, but I will pay the upgrade if the calendar is fixed.

😟

Just loaded up BusyCal .... great app! all that iCal used to be and more. We sholdn't have to pay for a calendar app but if it makes Lion usable for me, then it's worth it 'cuz it was going to be hard to retrograde back to Snow Leopard and no MobileMe.

I don't think that is their intention. I think usability just took a baskseat to someone's view of "style". As I pointed out earlier in the thread, it is not just an issue of those of us with less than great vision. A calendar app is a support app, something you want to use without taking your main thinking off of whatever it was on before checking you calendar. Even for those with 20/20 vision, this app induces cognitive strain (even if the user it not aware of it) that results in lower prodcutivity due to taking your attention fully away from whatever you were thinking about.

The problem is much bigger.

Technology "development" is moving too quickly. What large technology companies regard as "progress" often has a steep learning curve, and is hugely unproductive.

More specifically, Apple is a very large, excessively profitable company, which does not care at all about its customers. (Somehow, our needs get lost). And as long as many people keep buying the latest versions of its products, and the money keeps rolling in, why would they care at all about the people who use its products to earn a living?

Clearly, I do not like this company, even though I've been a loyal customer since 1992. From now on, I will do everything in my power to ensure that Apple makes NO PROFIT FROM ME. How?

I will purchase no new Apple computers, and no refurbished computers from Apple itself.

I will purchase no iPhones.

I will purchase NO software from Apple.

I will purchase NOTHING through iTunes.

Whenever possible, install compatible RAM and other parts from OTHER manufacturers.

Others can probably add a few ways to not support a company which does not care about its customers. (It will likely do just fine anyway, if we avoid purchasing from it directly).