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.

Source: Apple Inc. Canonical content at https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/materials. This file is a structured index of that content, snapshot 2025-02-02. Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc.; this repository provides organization and cross-referencing for AI agent consumption only.

Materials

Liquid Glass

Don’t use Liquid Glass in the content layer.

Use Liquid Glass effects sparingly.

Only use clear Liquid Glass for components that appear over visually rich backgrounds.

If the underlying content is bright, consider adding a dark dimming layer of 35% opacity. For developer guidance, see clear.
If the underlying content is sufficiently dark, or if you use standard media playback controls from AVKit that provide their own dimming layer, you don’t need to apply a dimming layer.

Standard materials

Choose materials and effects based on semantic meaning and recommended usage.

Help ensure legibility by using vibrant colors on top of materials.

Consider contrast and visual separation when choosing a material to combine with blur and vibrancy effects.

Thicker materials, which are more opaque, can provide better contrast for text and other elements with fine features.
Thinner materials, which are more translucent, can help people retain their context by providing a visible reminder of the content that’s in the background.

The thin material brings attention to interactive elements like buttons and selected items.
The regular material can help you visually separate sections of your app, like a sidebar or a grouped table view.
The thick material lets you create a dark element that remains visually distinct when it’s on top of an area that uses a regular background.
Use UIVibrancyEffectStyle.label for standard text.
Use UIVibrancyEffectStyle.secondaryLabel for descriptive text like footnotes and subtitles.
Use UIVibrancyEffectStyle.tertiaryLabel for inactive elements, and only when text doesn’t need high legibility.

Materials

Materials

Liquid Glass

Standard materials

Platform considerations

iOS, iPadOS

macOS

tvOS

visionOS

watchOS

Resources

Developer documentation

Videos

Change log

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