How should I design an iPad app using Apple's HIG?

Apple's HIG recommends using sidebars instead of bottom tab bars on iPadOS, supporting split views for multitasking, and adding pointer interactions. Apple HIG Skills provides instant, AI-ready guidance on all iPadOS conventions.

What are Apple's guidelines for adding Apple Pay?

Apple's HIG specifies exact payment button placement, flow design, error states, and UX patterns required for App Store approval. Apple HIG Skills gives your AI agent access to the full Apple Pay design guidelines.

How do I make my Apple app accessible?

Apple's HIG requires support for VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, sufficient color contrast ratios, and motor accessibility features like Switch Control. Apple HIG Skills covers all accessibility foundations and requirements.

How do I design for visionOS and Apple Vision Pro?

Apple's HIG for visionOS covers ornaments, volumes, immersive spaces, eye tracking, and spatial interaction patterns. Apple HIG Skills includes dedicated visionOS platform guidance and spatial layout references.

What are Apple's dark mode design guidelines?

Apple's HIG specifies using system semantic colors, material backgrounds, elevated surfaces, and vibrancy for dark mode. Apps should test in both modes and avoid hard-coded color values. Apple HIG Skills covers the full dark mode specification.

How should I design notifications for iOS apps?

Apple's HIG covers notification grouping, Live Activities, action buttons, and respecting user attention. Apple HIG Skills provides guidelines for the full notification system including widgets and complications.

Designing for games

When people play your game on an Apple device, they dive into the world you designed while relying on the platform features they love.

A stylized representation of a game controller shown on top of a grid. The image is overlaid with rectangular and circular grid lines and is tinted green to subtly reflect the green in the original six-color Apple logo.

As you create or adapt a game for Apple platforms, learn how to integrate the fundamental platform characteristics and patterns that help your game feel at home on all Apple devices. To learn what makes each platform unique, see Designing for iOS, Designing for iPadOS, Designing for macOS, Designing for tvOS, Designing for visionOS, and Designing for watchOS. For developer guidance, see Games Pathway.

Jump into gameplay

Let people play as soon as installation completes. You don’t want a player’s first experience with your game to be waiting for a lengthy download. Include as much playable content as you can in your game’s initial installation while keeping the download time to 30 minutes or less. Download additional content in the background. For guidance, see Loading.

Provide great default settings. People appreciate being able to start playing without first having to change a lot of settings. Use information about a player’s device to choose the best defaults for your game, such as the device resolution that makes your graphics look great, automatic recognition of paired accessories and game controllers, and the player’s accessibility settings. Also, make sure your game supports the platform’s most common interaction methods. For guidance, see Settings.

Teach through play. Players often learn better when they discover new information and mechanics in the context of your game’s world, so it can work well to integrate configuration and onboarding flows into a playable tutorial that engages people quickly and helps them feel successful right away. If you also have a written tutorial, consider offering it as a resource players can refer to when they have questions instead of making it a prerequisite for gameplay. For guidance, see Onboarding.

Defer requests until the right time. You don’t want to bombard people with too many requests before they start playing, but if your game uses certain sensors on an Apple device or personalizes gameplay by accessing data like hand-tracking, you must first get the player’s permission (for guidance, see Privacy). To help people understand why you’re making such a request, integrate it into the scenario that requires the data. For example, you could ask permission to track a player’s hands between an initial cutscene and the first time they can use their hands to control the action. Also, make sure people spend quality time with your game before you ask them for a rating or review (for guidance, see Ratings and reviews).

Launching

Onboarding

Look stunning on every display

Make sure text is always legible. When game text is hard to read, people can struggle to follow the narrative, understand important instructions and information, and stay engaged in the experience. To keep text comfortably legible on each device, ensure that it contrasts well with the background and uses at least the recommended minimum text size in each platform. For guidance, see Typography; for developer guidance, see Adapting your game interface for smaller screens.

Platform| Default text size| Minimum text size
---|---|---
iOS, iPadOS| 17 pt| 11 pt
macOS| 13 pt| 10 pt
tvOS| 29 pt| 23 pt
visionOS| 17 pt| 12 pt
watchOS| 16 pt| 12 pt

Make sure buttons are always easy to use. Buttons that are too small or too close together can frustrate players and make gameplay less fun. Each platform defines a recommended minimum button size based on its default interaction method. For example, buttons in iOS must be at least 44x44 pt to accommodate touch interaction. For guidance, see Buttons.

Platform| Default button size| Minimum button size
---|---|---
iOS, iPadOS| 44x44 pt| 28x28 pt
macOS| 28x28 pt| 20x20 pt
tvOS| 66x66 pt| 56x56 pt
visionOS| 60x60 pt| 28x28 pt
watchOS| 44x44 pt| 28x28 pt

Prefer resolution-independent textures and graphics. If creating resolution-independent assets isn’t possible, match the resolution of your game to the resolution of the device. In visionOS, prefer vector-based art that can continue to look good when the system dynamically scales it as people view it from different distances and angles. For guidance, see Images.

Integrate device features into your layout. For example, a device may have rounded corners or a camera housing that can affect parts of your interface. To help your game look at home on each device, accommodate such features during layout, relying on platform-provided safe areas when possible (for developer guidance, see Positioning content relative to the safe area). For guidance, see Layout; for templates that include safe-area guides, see Apple Design Resources.

Make sure in-game menus adapt to different aspect ratios. Games need to look good and behave well at various aspect ratios, such as 16:10, 19.5:9, and 4:3. In particular, in-game menus need to remain legible and easy to use on every device — and, if you support them, in both orientations on iPhone and iPad — without obscuring other content. To help ensure your in-game menus render correctly, consider using dynamic layouts that rely on relative constraints to adjust to different contexts. Avoid fixed layouts as much as possible, and aim to create a custom, device-specific layout only when necessary. For guidance, see In-game menus.

Design for the full-screen experience. People often enjoy playing a game in a distraction-free, full-screen context. In macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, full-screen mode lets people hide other apps and parts of the system UI; in visionOS, a game running in a Full Space can completely surround people, transporting them somewhere else. For guidance, see Going full screen.

Layout

Typography

Going full screen

Enable intuitive interactions

Support each platform’s default interaction method. For example, people generally use touch to play games on iPhone; on a Mac, players tend to expect keyboard and mouse or trackpad support; and in a visionOS game, people expect to use their eyes and hands while making indirect and direct gestures. As you work to ensure that your game supports each platform’s default interaction method, pay special attention to control sizing and menu behavior, especially when bringing your game from a pointer-based context to a touch-based one.

Platform| Default interaction methods| Additional interaction methods
---|---|---
iOS| Touch| Game controller
iPadOS| Touch| Game controller, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, Apple Pencil
macOS| Keyboard, mouse, trackpad| Game controller
tvOS| Remote| Game controller, keyboard, mouse, trackpad
visionOS| Touch| Game controller, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, spatial game controller
watchOS| Touch| –

Support physical game controllers, while also giving people alternatives. Every platform except watchOS supports physical game controllers. Although the presence of a game controller makes it straightforward to port controls from an existing game and handle complex control mappings, recognize that not every player can use a physical game controller. To make your game available to as many players as possible, also offer alternative ways to interact with your game. For guidance, see Physical controllers.

Offer touch-based game controls that embrace the touchscreen experience on iPhone and iPad. In iOS and iPadOS, your game can allow players to interact directly with game elements, and to control the game using virtual controls that appear on top of your game content. For design guidance, see Touch controls.

Game controls

Gestures

Pointing devices

Welcome everyone

Prioritize perceivability. Make sure people can perceive your game’s content whether they use sight, hearing, or touch. For example, avoid relying solely on color to convey an important detail, or providing a cutscene that doesn’t include descriptive subtitles or offer other ways to read the content. For specific guidance, see:

Text sizes
Color and effects
Motion
Interactions
Buttons

Help players personalize their experience. Players have a variety of preferences and abilities that influence their interactions with your game. Because there’s no universal configuration that suits everyone, give players the ability to customize parameters like type size, game control mapping, motion intensity, and sound balance. You can take advantage of built-in Apple accessibility technologies to support accessibility personalizations, whether you’re using system frameworks or Unity plug-ins.

Give players the tools they need to represent themselves. If your game encourages players to create avatars or supply names or descriptions, support the spectrum of self-identity and provide options that represent as many human characteristics as possible.

Avoid stereotypes in your stories and characters. Ask yourself whether you’re depicting game characters and scenarios in a way that perpetuates real-life stereotypes. For example, does your game depict enemies as having a certain race, gender, or cultural heritage? Review your game to uncover and remove biases and stereotypes and — if references to real-life cultures and languages are necessary — be sure they’re respectful.

Accessibility

Inclusion

Adopt Apple technologies

Integrate Game Center to help players discover your game across their devices and connect with their friends. Game Center is Apple’s social gaming network, available on all platforms. Game Center lets players keep track of their progress and achievements and allows you to set up leaderboards, challenges, and multiplayer activities in your game. For design guidance, see Game Center; for developer guidance, see GameKit.

Let players pick up their game on any of their devices. People often have a single iCloud account that they use across multiple Apple devices. When you support GameSave, you can help people save their game state and start back up exactly where they left off on a different device.

Support haptics to help players feel the action. When you adopt Core Haptics, you can compose and play custom haptic patterns, optionally combined with custom audio content. Core Haptics is available in iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and visionOS, and supported on many game controllers. For guidance, see Playing haptics; for developer guidance, see Core Haptics and Playing Haptics on Game Controllers.

Use Spatial Audio to immerse players in your game’s soundscape. Providing multichannel audio can help your game’s audio adapt automatically to the current device, enabling an immersive Spatial Audio experience where supported. For guidance, see Playing audio > visionOS; for developer guidance, see Explore Spatial Audio.

Take advantage of Apple technologies to enable unique gameplay mechanics. For example, you can integrate technologies like augmented reality, machine learning, and HealthKit, and request access to location data and functionality like camera and microphone. For a full list of Apple technologies, features, and services, see Technologies.

Game Center