Reading OutBrick’s spatial board with VoiceOver

The useful picture of a sliding puzzle contains more than a collection of colours. A brick has a position, a matching gate and neighbours that may obstruct its route. The space between those objects determines which moves are possible. Hearing every object name once does not necessarily give you those relationships, particularly on a board you have never explored before.

OutBrick’s VoiceOver labels identify a brick’s colour, shape and position. Those labels are a starting point for building your own picture. Listen for the identity of a piece, then ask where its matching gate lies and what is between them. You do not need to memorise the entire board before examining one possible route.

Ran et al. (2025) interviewed 32 experienced blind or low-vision mobile players in China; participants requested integrated focus navigation, accessible tutorials and customisable feedback.

For our design, that makes understanding the board a task worth examining separately from executing a slide. Our guide to VoiceOver slide actions covers movement once you have found the piece you want.

Sources1Source 1Ran, Z., Li, X., Xiao, Q., Fan, X., Li, F. M., Wang, Y., & Lu, Z. (2025). How users who are blind or low vision play mobile games: Perceptions, challenges, and strategies. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–18). Association for Computing Machinery.

Sequential navigation means moving through accessible elements with left or right swipes. Direct touch exploration means moving a finger over the board to hear what lies under it. The first can help you discover the available elements. The second can help connect an announcement to a place. A navigation sequence should not be treated as a map of physical adjacency.

An AppleVis player reported finding only two gates through touch, while another gate appeared through sequential navigation. Some bricks, including pieces surrounded by others or blocking a different-coloured gate, were similarly discoverable by swiping but absent under the finger. The player also reported losing levels after a relevant brick went unannounced. We acknowledged both defects. If the two methods give you different information, a missing announcement is a reasonable thing to report; it is not evidence that you have misunderstood the puzzle.

Kane et al. (2008) studied ten screen-reader users on non-game tasks; their prototype separated exploration from activation, but faster overall use brought more errors.

That historical example invites a useful design question here: can a player investigate freely before choosing an action? You may prefer one exploration method or combine them. What matters is being able to discover the information you need before deciding to move.

Sources2Source 2Kane, S. K., Bigham, J. P., & Wobbrock, J. O. (2008). Slide rule: Making mobile touch screens accessible to blind people using multi-touch interaction techniques. In Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (pp. 73–80). Association for Computing Machinery.

Another player explained that flick navigation worked best, but moving a finger over the board was necessary for spatial understanding. The missing piece was an explicit announcement for empty cells. Without it, a quiet area could not confidently be understood as available space. That is a precise observation about what a puzzle needs to communicate.

Consider an imagined board with a brick, a gate and a gap between them. A player needs to know whether the gap is clear before predicting the slide. Silence alone leaves several possibilities: empty space, an object that was missed, or a location outside the intended board area. A clear empty-cell announcement would remove one source of uncertainty.

Empty space is part of the puzzle’s information. It helps distinguish a blocked route from a possible route and makes the relationship between pieces easier to investigate. It still does not promise that a brick will stop in that space: in OutBrick, a slide to the end continues until something stops the brick, and a shorter slide action names how many cells it covers. Our movement guide explains why the stopping point matters as much as the opening.

Begin with one brick and its intended destination. Discover what you can through sequential navigation, then revisit relevant positions by touch. If the two routes disagree, keep that uncertainty in your plan rather than filling it with a guess. Use the comparison when it helps you get your bearings, and tell us when either route leaves information out.

Gonçalves et al. (2023) analysed over 70 hours of published blind-player gameplay; their qualitative study identified trade-offs between access, agency and engagement in visual-centric games.

Our practical response is to keep the routine modest. You should be able to choose a route to explore, pause, and return to an uncertain position without feeling obliged to demonstrate expert workarounds. After a successful slide, inspect the changed area again: the position that was occupied a moment ago may now serve a different purpose.

• Identify the brick and the matching gate before planning the route.
• Check which pieces lie along that route and where a slide would stop.
• Compare touch exploration with sequential navigation when information appears to be missing.
• Treat silence as unresolved information until you have a reliable way to confirm the space.

Sources3Source 3Gonçalves, D., Piçarra, M., Pais, P., Guerreiro, J., & Rodrigues, A. (2023). “My Zelda Cane”: Strategies used by blind players to play visual-centric digital games. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Article 289, pp. 1–15). Association for Computing Machinery.

In our 2 October AppleVis reply about touch exploration, we committed to making every brick and gate discoverable at its actual position and announcing free cells as empty. The later empty-cell suggestion reinforced the same priority. As of 2 October 2026, those fixes remain in progress for the next update.

We also said that every level was being redesigned, beginning with the first villages, with VoiceOver remaining central to that work. The redesign and navigation work tackle different needs: a satisfying challenge, and a reliable way to discover the information needed to attempt it. We want you to spend your attention on choosing a route with a clear understanding of the pieces involved.

Nair et al. (2024) compared three navigation tools with nine players; preferences split between Surveyor and a menu in a purpose-built Windows game.

That small study encourages us to leave room for different exploration preferences. Its setting was different from OutBrick’s, but the question is useful: can you investigate in a way that suits you? Our accessibility page brings together the broader feature information.

Sources4Source 4Nair, V., Zhu, H., Song, P., Wang, J., & Smith, B. A. (2024). Surveyor: Facilitating discovery within video games for blind and low vision players. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–15). Association for Computing Machinery.

A useful report can be short: identify the level, describe the brick or gate, and say whether you found it by sequential navigation, direct touch, both or neither. Include the app version, device and operating-system version if you have them. Those details help distinguish a particular board arrangement from a broader navigation problem.

You do not need to solve the board or diagnose the software before contacting us. “I can hear this gate while swiping, but cannot find it under my finger” already describes something concrete. If you can reproduce it, the sequence that leads there is useful; if you cannot, the original observation is still worth sharing.

Use the contact form to send that account. Our accessibility commitment explains how these reports connect to the wider work. The aim is a board whose pieces and spaces can be understood well enough for the next decision to belong to you.