iCal 5.0 - washed out dates unreadable

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.

It is crap like this that I have nooooo time for that is driving me to the big G for apps and phone... nrk

Has the i Cal 5.0 unreadable washed out dates design flaw been resolved in the OS X Mountain Lion upgrade or is Apple passing along the same problem to a new operating system.

The fonts are much darker in Mountain Lion. I'd say iCal is usable again finally.

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).

The problem is not just iCal but ranges from App Store to xSan. Apple has placed style above usability and is ignoring what the customers are saying about their interface.

What baffles me is how they can pass the Federal Governments accessibility testing requirements. Switching to white on black interface even for a moment adds another layer of problems:

1) It can be disorienting visually, particuliarly if you are using the zoom feature.

2) It interrupts the work flow by adding yet another task or adaptation to deal with on a busy screen.

3) It removes the visual cues that color provides for everyone. There has always been a myth that those with low vision can see and use pictures, books, or GUI with less strain if high contrast black and white color schemes are used. This is not true of most people with lower visual accuity. Without color many things can become just a jumble of white and black lines that take more time to interpret.

This does not even address the problem that the average person has in seeing this lite grey text. I have read to many complaints about it on the web from people who are not visually impaired believe this in an isolated problem. According to most people that I have spoken to the grey text does not add to the experience of using a Mac. In the long run, they say it detracts from the user experience because of the added strain.

When I quaried Apple tech support about this problem I recieved what seemed a canned response. The change in the interface was towards a more "minimalist" style and that was the overall trend in the industry. Funny thing is I don't see this extensive use of lite grey or low contrast text in the Windows Servers and Windows 7 machines that I support each day. I don't know if this means Microsoft is listening more to its customers or they are more hardcore down to earth bussiness oriented, as opposed to style oriented.

I hope that at some point those in charge at Apple realize that these are not minor stylistic issues for us. It can mean the difference in getting a job done in a timely fashion and, thus, keeping our job, or being unemployed.

Apple, the decisions you make affect real people. In this case it has caused harm to those who have no other good choice than to use your interface.

Frankly guys, I don't think those who make these decisions care what harm they have done.

Colored script itsy bitsy tiny buttons, e.g. play a voice mail, is for young folks not for us approaching 70. After having used Apple products since the Apple II, and having owned about every version of a Mac, starting with the Lisa, it looks like the MS interface has caught up. This might be the smart time to bail.

Apple has been losing it since Lion. Everything is gray! You cannot distinguish between enabled and disabled buttons, etc. The icons on menu bar are gray either way. Apple says that this way the content comes to front but it's not, cos we create the content using all those buttons, we' re not just reading it as we do with iDevices. Imagine Photoshop having gray all its buttons! wow! So... I don't think that there is a solution for this, except if Apple finds its logic again.