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Human Interface Guidelines
Contents
Getting started (9)
- Getting started— Create an app or game that feels at home on every platform you support.
- Design principles— Explore fundamental principles that guide design across Apple platforms.
- Designing for games— When people play your game on an Apple device, they dive into the world you desi...
- Designing for iOS— People depend on their iPhone to help them stay connected, play games, view medi...
- Designing for iPadOS— People value the power, mobility, and flexibility of iPad as they enjoy media, p...
- Designing for macOS— People rely on the power, spaciousness, and flexibility of a Mac as they perform...
- Designing for tvOS— People enjoy the vibrant content, immersive experiences, and streamlined interac...
- Designing for visionOS— When people wear Apple Vision Pro, they enter an infinite 3D space where they ca...
- Designing for watchOS— When people glance at their Apple Watch, they know they can access essential inf...
Foundations (19)
- Foundations— Understand how fundamental design elements help you create rich experiences.
- Accessibility— Accessible user interfaces empower everyone to have a great experience with your...
- App icons— A unique, memorable icon expresses your app’s or game’s purpose and personality ...
- Branding— Apps and games express their unique brand identity in ways that make them instan...
- Color— Judicious use of color can enhance communication, evoke your brand, provide visu...
- Dark Mode— Dark Mode is a systemwide appearance setting that uses a dark color palette to p...
- Icons— An effective icon is a graphic asset that expresses a single concept in ways peo...
- Images— To make sure your artwork looks great on all devices you support, learn how the ...
- Immersive experiences— In visionOS, you can design apps and games that extend beyond windows and volume...
- Inclusion— Inclusive apps and games put people first by prioritizing respectful communicati...
- Layout— A consistent layout that adapts to various contexts makes your experience more a...
- Materials— A material is a visual effect that creates a sense of depth, layering, and hiera...
- Motion— Beautiful, fluid motions bring the interface to life, conveying status, providin...
- Privacy— Privacy is paramount: it’s critical to be transparent about the privacy-related ...
- Right to left— Support right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew by reversing your interfa...
- SF Symbols— SF Symbols provides thousands of consistent, highly configurable symbols that in...
- Spatial layout— Spatial layout techniques help you take advantage of the infinite canvas of Appl...
- Typography— Your typographic choices can help you display legible text, convey an informatio...
- Writing— The words you choose within your app are an essential part of its user experienc...
Patterns (26)
- Patterns— Get design guidance for supporting common user actions, tasks, and experiences.
- Charting data— Presenting data in a chart can help you communicate information with clarity and...
- Collaboration and sharing— Great collaboration and sharing experiences are simple and responsive, letting p...
- Drag and drop— Using drag and drop, people can move or duplicate selected photos, text, and oth...
- Entering data— When you need information from people, design ways that make it easy for them to...
- Feedback— Feedback helps people know what’s happening, discover what they can do next, und...
- File management— Some apps can support documents and files that people expect to manage throughou...
- Going full screen— iPhone, iPad, and Mac offer full-screen modes that let people expand a window to...
- Launching— A streamlined launch experience helps people start using your app or game immedi...
- Live-viewing apps— As you design a live-viewing app, prioritize the content and create fun, fluid i...
- Loading— The best content-loading experience finishes before people become aware of it.
- Managing accounts— When it doesn’t create an unnecessary barrier to your experience, an account can...
- Managing notifications— Notifications can give people timely and important information, whether the devi...
- Modality— Modality is a design technique that presents content in a separate, dedicated mo...
- Multitasking— Multitasking lets people switch quickly from one app to another, performing task...
- Offering help— Although the most effective experiences are approachable and intuitive, you can ...
- Onboarding— Onboarding can help people get a quick start using your app or game.
- Playing audio— People expect rich audio experiences that automatically adjust when the context ...
- Playing haptics— Playing haptics can engage people’s sense of touch and bring their familiarity w...
- Playing video— People expect to enjoy rich video experiences on their devices, regardless of th...
- Printing— An iOS, iPadOS, macOS, or visionOS app can integrate system-provided print funct...
- Ratings and reviews— People often view the ratings and reviews for an app or game before they downloa...
- Searching— People use various search techniques to find content on their device, within an ...
- Settings— People expect apps and games to just work, but they also appreciate having ways ...
- Undo and redo— Undo and redo gives people easy ways to reverse many types of actions, which can...
- Workouts— A great workout or fitness experience encourages people to engage with their cur...
Components (1)
- Components— Learn how to use and customize system-defined components to give people a famili...
Technologies (30)
- Technologies— Discover the Apple technologies, features, and services you can integrate into y...
- AirPlay— AirPlay lets people stream media content wirelessly from iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and...
- Always On— On devices that include the Always On display, the system can continue to displa...
- App Clips— An App Clip is a lightweight version of your app or game that provides an on-the...
- Apple Pay— Apple Pay is a secure, easy way to make payments for physical goods and services...
- Augmented reality— Augmented reality (or AR) lets you deliver immersive, engaging experiences that ...
- CareKit— People can use CareKit apps to manage care plans related to a chronic illness li...
- CarPlay— CarPlay lets people get directions, make calls, send and receive messages, liste...
- Game Center— Game Center is Apple’s social gaming network, which lets players track their pro...
- Generative AI— Generative AI empowers you to enhance your app or game with dynamic content and ...
- HealthKit— HealthKit is the central repository for health and fitness data in iOS, iPadOS, ...
- HomeKit— HomeKit lets people securely control connected accessories in their homes using ...
- iCloud— iCloud is a service that lets people seamlessly access the content they care abo...
- ID Verifier— ID Verifier lets your iPhone app read mobile IDs in person without requiring ext...
- iMessage apps and stickers— An iMessage app can help people share content, collaborate, and even play games ...
- In-app purchase— People can use in-app purchase to pay for virtual goods — like premium content, ...
- Live Photos— Live Photos lets people capture favorite memories in a sound- and motion-rich in...
- Mac Catalyst— When you use Mac Catalyst to create a Mac version of your iPad app, you give peo...
- Machine learning— Machine learning enables apps and games to learn from data and usage patterns, l...
- Maps— A map displays outdoor or indoor geographical data in your app or on your websit...
- NFC— Near-field communication (NFC) allows devices within a few centimeters of each o...
- Photo editing— Photo-editing extensions let people modify photos and videos within the Photos a...
- ResearchKit— A research app lets people everywhere participate in important medical research ...
- SharePlay— SharePlay helps multiple people share activities — like viewing a movie, listeni...
- ShazamKit— ShazamKit supports audio recognition by matching an audio sample against the Sha...
- Sign in with Apple— Sign in with Apple provides a fast, private way to sign into apps and websites, ...
- Siri— People use Siri to help them with the things they need to find, know, or do ever...
- Tap to Pay on iPhone— Tap to Pay on iPhone lets merchants accept contactless payments using an app on ...
- VoiceOver— VoiceOver is a screen reader that lets people experience your app’s interface wi...
- Wallet— Wallet helps people securely store their credit and debit cards, driver’s licens...
Content (5)
- Content
- Charts— Organize data in a chart to communicate information with clarity and visual appe...
- Image views— An image view displays a single image — or in some cases, an animated sequence o...
- Text views— A text view displays multiline, styled text content, which can optionally be edi...
- Web views— A web view loads and displays rich web content, such as embedded HTML and websit...
Layout and organization (11)
- Layout and organization
- Boxes— A box creates a visually distinct group of logically related information and com...
- Collections— A collection manages an ordered set of content and presents it in a customizable...
- Column views— A column view — also called a browser — lets people view and navigate a data hie...
- Disclosure controls— Disclosure controls reveal and hide information and functionality related to spe...
- Labels— A label is a static piece of text that people can read and often copy, but not e...
- Lists and tables— Lists and tables present data in one or more columns of rows.
- Lockups— Lockups combine multiple separate views into a single, interactive unit.
- Outline views— An outline view presents hierarchical data in a scrolling list of cells that are...
- Split views— A split view manages the presentation of multiple adjacent panes of content, eac...
- Tab views— A tab view presents multiple mutually exclusive panes of content in the same are...
Menus and actions (13)
- Menus and actions
- Activity views— An activity view — often called a share sheet — presents a range of tasks that p...
- Buttons— A button initiates an instantaneous action.
- Context menus— A context menu provides access to functionality that’s directly related to an it...
- Dock menus— On a Mac, people can secondary click an app’s or game’s icon in the Dock to reve...
- Edit menus— An edit menu lets people make changes to selected content in the current view, i...
- Home Screen quick actions— Home Screen quick actions give people a way to perform app-specific actions from...
- Menus— A menu reveals its options when people interact with it, making it a space-effic...
- Ornaments— In visionOS, an ornament presents controls and information related to a window, ...
- Pop-up buttons— A pop-up button displays a menu of mutually exclusive options.
- Pull-down buttons— A pull-down button displays a menu of items or actions that directly relate to t...
- The menu bar— On a Mac or an iPad, the menu bar at the top of the screen displays the top-leve...
- Toolbars— A toolbar provides convenient access to frequently used commands, controls, navi...
Navigation and search (6)
- Navigation and search
- Path controls— A path control shows the file system path of a selected file or folder.
- Search fields— A search field lets people search a collection of content for specific terms the...
- Sidebars— A sidebar appears on the leading side of a view and lets people navigate between...
- Tab bars— A tab bar lets people navigate between top-level sections of your app.
- Token fields— A token field is a type of text field that can convert text into tokens that are...
Presentation (9)
- Presentation
- Action sheets— An action sheet is a modal view that presents choices related to an action peopl...
- Alerts— An alert gives people critical information they need right away.
- Page controls— A page control displays a row of indicator images, each of which represents a pa...
- Panels— In a macOS app, a panel typically floats above other open windows providing supp...
- Popovers— A popover is a transient view that appears above other content when people click...
- Scroll views— A scroll view lets people view content that’s larger than the view’s boundaries ...
- Sheets— A sheet helps people perform a scoped task that’s closely related to their curre...
- Windows— A window presents UI views and components in your app or game.
Status (5)
- Status
- Activity rings— Activity rings show an individual’s daily progress toward Move, Exercise, and St...
- Gauges— A gauge displays a specific numerical value within a range of values.
- Progress indicators— Progress indicators let people know that your app isn’t stalled while it loads c...
- Rating indicators— A rating indicator uses a series of horizontally arranged graphical symbols — by...
System experiences (11)
- System experiences
- App Shortcuts— An App Shortcut gives people access to your app’s key functions or content throu...
- Complications— A complication displays timely, relevant information on the watch face, where pe...
- Controls— A control provides quick access to a feature of your app from Control Center, th...
- Live Activities— A Live Activity lets people track the progress of an activity, event, or task at...
- Notifications— A notification gives people timely, high-value information they can understand a...
- Snippets— When someone performs a task with Siri or an App Shortcut, a snippet shows the r...
- Status bars— A status bar appears along the upper edge of the screen and displays information...
- Top Shelf— The Apple TV Home Screen provides an area called Top Shelf, which showcases your...
- Watch faces— A watch face is a view that people choose as their primary view in watchOS.
- Widgets— A widget provides quick access to essential information and focused interactions...