Changing perspectives: unlocking landscape in the EE app

In June, we achieved a significant accessibility milestone on our EE app by removing the orientation lock. Now, our customers can use the app in portrait or landscape mode.

By default, all apps support both mobile orientations. Using a smartphone or tablet in any orientation is a native accessibility feature and when we lock the orientation of an app we create an accessibility barrier.

Not everyone holds their smart phone as if it were an ordinary phone. Some customers might have their mobile permanently mounted in landscape orientation due to mobility issues. There are also customers with visual impairments that increase the text significantly. They might find that turning their devices in landscape orientation can improve readability and interaction. We will also find that some disabled people might find easier to hold their mobile in landscape for a number of different reasons, such as lack of dexterity, missing or underdeveloped limbs.

At EE, we didn’t just want our customers to be able to turn their mobile around while using our app. We also wanted to provide an enjoyable experience. To achieve this, we mobilised over 20 squads throughout 24 months.

We established a set of experience standards required to consider the app good enough to be released with the orientation unlocked. Our Digital Accessibility team worked on identifying and communicating with designers and engineers on the major issues we had to fix to achieve these standards.

These included reduced viewing area, overlapping UI elements, content covered by the iPhone notch and pixel overflow. Our team does not work on just pointing out issues, we focused on finding solutions through a collaborative approach.

It took a multitude of meetings and workshops to ensure everybody understood the value of this effort while building confidence that both orientations would be sustainable. This alignment with the business is fundamental for a successful Accessibility programme.

At times, we found ourselves in chicken-and-egg situation, with engineers telling us they were waiting for designers to provide them with landscape files and designers trying to figure out how things should look in landscape. The key behind all this effort was the application of responsive design at a component level in our design system as well as at screen level.

There were moments when we were so close, but one thing always got in the way: trying to achieve perfection. While struggling to make every experience perfect in landscape, some customers were still unable to use our app, and waiting for an ideal solution before rolling out enhancements meant delaying crucial benefits for our users.

Therefore, we decided to adopt an iterative approach just as we do with the rest of our work: releasing improvements, gathering user feedback, and making necessary adjustments in subsequent updates. This same approach accelerates innovation and ensures that users with disabilities benefit immediately rather than being left behind while waiting for a perfect solution.

Within a few weeks after launching the EE app in landscape, we were delighted to see the number of our customers using the app in landscape is higher than what we expected.

Our analytics data showed that an average of 1.5% of our customers turn their devices in landscape while using our app. That is almost 10 million customers in 6 weeks! We have found that this number increases to 5% on some screens.

The EE app will never be finished as we are continually iterating, but one thing is for sure: we are progressing towards an app that becomes more inclusive with every release. By not restricting to a single orientation, we are building an app that is more flexible and can be used comfortably on various devices, from smartphones to tablets and beyond. In other words, we are future proofing our EE app.