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.

The menu bar — Apple HIG Design Guidelines

Source: Apple Inc. Canonical content at https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/the-menu-bar. 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.

Anatomy

YourAppName (you supply a short version of your app’s name for this menu’s title)
File
Edit
Format
View
App-specific menus, if any
Window
Help

Best practices

Support the default system-defined menus and their ordering.

Always show the same set of menu items.

Represent menu item actions with familiar icons.

Support the keyboard shortcuts defined for the standard menu items you include.

Prefer short, one-word menu titles.

Display the About menu item first.

Determine whether Find menu items belong in the Edit menu.

Provide a View menu even if your app supports only a subset of the standard view functions.

Ensure that each show/hide item title reflects the current state of the corresponding view.

App-specific menus

Provide app-specific menus for custom commands.

As much as possible, reflect your app’s hierarchy in app-specific menus.

Aim to list app-specific menus in order from most to least general or commonly used.

Provide a Window menu even if your app has only one window.

Consider including menu items for showing and hiding panels.

Avoid making a dynamic menu item the only way to accomplish a task.

Use dynamic menu items primarily in menu bar menus.

Require only a single modifier key to reveal a dynamic menu item.

Platform considerations

iPadOS

Because the menu bar is often hidden when running an app full screen, ensure that people can access all of your app’s functions through its UI.

Reserve the YourAppName > Settings menu item for opening your app’s page in iPadOS Settings.

For apps with tab-style navigation, consider adding each tab as a menu item in the View menu.

Consider grouping menu items into submenus to conserve vertical space.

macOS

Consider using a symbol to represent your menu bar extra.

Display a menu — not a popover — when people click your menu bar extra.

Let people — not your app — decide whether to put your menu bar extra in the menu bar.

Avoid relying on the presence of menu bar extras.

Consider exposing app-specific functionality in other ways, too.

The menu bar

The menu bar

Anatomy

Best practices

App menu

File menu

Edit menu

Format menu

View menu

App-specific menus

Window menu

Help menu

Dynamic menu items

Platform considerations

iPadOS

macOS

Menu bar extras

Resources

Developer documentation

Videos

Change log

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