apple-hig-helper

What this skill does

# Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) Helper

## Overview

The Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) provides comprehensive design guidance for creating great experiences across all Apple platforms. This skill provides access to **174 topics** covering:

- **6 Apple Platforms**: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, watchOS
- **40+ UI Components**: Buttons, Menus, Alerts, Sheets, Lists, and more
- **20+ Design Patterns**: Navigation, Modality, Feedback, Loading, Settings
- **30+ Apple Technologies**: Apple Pay, Siri, HomeKit, CarPlay, ARKit, HealthKit
- **Design Foundations**: Color, Typography, Icons, Layout, Materials, Branding
- **Accessibility & Inclusion**: Guidelines for building apps everyone can use

**Data Location**: `markdown/`
**Format**: 174 Markdown documentation pages

## Quick Reference: Major Topics with Summaries

### Design Foundations

#### Color

**Path**: `markdown/color/index.md`

Judicious use of color can enhance communication, evoke your brand, provide visual continuity, communicate status and feedback, and help people understand information.

#### Typography

**Path**: `markdown/typography/index.md`

Your typographic choices can help you display legible text, convey an information hierarchy, communicate important content, and express your brand or style.

#### Icons

**Path**: `markdown/icons/index.md`

An effective icon is a graphic asset that expresses a single concept in ways people instantly understand.

#### Layout

**Path**: `markdown/layout/index.md`

A consistent layout that adapts to various contexts makes your experience more approachable and helps people enjoy their favorite apps and games on all their devices.

#### Materials

**Path**: `markdown/materials/index.md`

A material is a visual effect that creates a sense of depth, layering, and hierarchy between foreground and background elements.

#### Branding

**Path**: `markdown/branding/index.md`

Apps and games express their unique brand identity in ways that make them instantly recognizable while feeling at home on the platform and giving people a consistent experience.

#### Dark Mode

**Path**: `markdown/dark-mode/index.md`

Dark Mode is a systemwide appearance setting that uses a dark color palette to provide a comfortable viewing experience tailored for low-light environments.

#### Images

**Path**: `markdown/images/index.md`

To make sure your artwork looks great on all devices you support, learn how the system displays content and how to deliver art at the appropriate scale factors.

### Accessibility & Inclusion

#### Accessibility

**Path**: `markdown/accessibility/index.md`

Accessible user interfaces empower everyone to have a great experience with your app or game.

#### Inclusion

**Path**: `markdown/inclusion/index.md`

Inclusive apps and games put people first by prioritizing respectful communication and presenting content and functionality in ways that everyone can access and understand.

### Common UI Components

#### Buttons

**Path**: `markdown/buttons/index.md`

A button initiates an instantaneous action.

#### Menus

**Path**: `markdown/menus/index.md`

A menu reveals its options when people interact with it, making it a space-efficient way to present commands in your app or game.

#### Alerts

**Path**: `markdown/alerts/index.md`

An alert gives people critical information they need right away.

#### Sheets

**Path**: `markdown/sheets/index.md`

A sheet helps people perform a scoped task that's closely related to their current context.

#### Lists and Tables

**Path**: `markdown/lists-and-tables/index.md`

Lists and tables present data in one or more columns of rows.

#### Pickers

**Path**: `markdown/pickers/index.md`

A picker displays one or more scrollable lists of distinct values that people can choose from.

#### Sliders

**Path**: `markdown/sliders/index.md`

A slider is a horizontal track with a control, called a thumb, that people can adjust between a minimum and maximum value.

#### Toggles

**Path**: `markdown/toggles/index.md`

A toggle lets people choose between a pair of opposing states, like on and off, using a different appearance to indicate each state.

#### Text Fields

**Path**: `markdown/text-fields/index.md`

A text field is a rectangular area in which people enter or edit small, specific pieces of text.

### Design Patterns

#### Modality

**Path**: `markdown/modality/index.md`

Modality is a design technique that presents content in a separate, dedicated mode that prevents interaction with the parent view and requires an explicit action to dismiss.

#### Navigation and Search

**Path**: `markdown/navigation-and-search/index.md`

Help people navigate and find content efficiently.

#### Feedback

**Path**: `markdown/feedback/index.md`

Feedback helps people know what's happening, discover what they can do next, understand the results of actions, and avoid mistakes.

#### Loading

**Path**: `markdown/loading/index.md`

The best content-loading experience finishes before people become aware of it.

#### Settings

**Path**: `markdown/settings/index.md`

People expect apps and games to just work, but they also appreciate having ways to customize the experience to fit their needs.

#### Onboarding

**Path**: `markdown/onboarding/index.md`

Onboarding can help people get a quick start using your app or game.

### Platform-Specific Guidelines

#### Designing for iOS

**Path**: `markdown/designing-for-ios/index.md`

People depend on their iPhone to help them stay connected, play games, view media, accomplish tasks, and track personal data in any location and while on the go.

#### Designing for iPadOS

**Path**: `markdown/designing-for-ipados/index.md`

People value the power, mobility, and flexibility of iPad as they enjoy media, play games, perform detailed productivity tasks, and bring their creations to life.

#### Designing for macOS

**Path**: `markdown/designing-for-macos/index.md`

People rely on the power, spaciousness, and flexibility of a Mac as they perform in-depth productivity tasks, view media or content, and play games, often using several apps at once.

#### Designing for tvOS

**Path**: `markdown/designing-for-tvos/index.md`

People enjoy the vibrant content, immersive experiences, and streamlined interactions that tvOS delivers in media and games, as well as in fitness, education, and home utility apps.

#### Designing for visionOS

**Path**: `markdown/designing-for-visionos/index.md`

When people wear Apple Vision Pro, they enter an infinite 3D space where they can engage with your app or game while staying connected to their surroundings.

#### Designing for watchOS

**Path**: `markdown/designing-for-watchos/index.md`

When people glance at their Apple Watch, they know they can access essential information and perform simple, timely tasks whether they're stationary or in motion.

## Complete Topic Index (All 174 Topics)

### By Category

#### Foundations (9 topics)

- accessibility
- branding
- color
- dark-mode
- icons
- images
- layout
- materials
- typography

#### Components - Content (11 topics)

- activity-rings
- charts
- gauges
- image-views
- labels
- lockups
- progress-indicators
- rating-indicators
- text-views
- web-views
- sf-symbols

#### Components - Layout & Organization (13 topics)

- boxes
- collections
- column-views
- disclosure-controls
- lists-and-tables
- lockups
- outline-views
- scroll-views
- split-views
- tab-views
- tables (see lists-and-tables)
- sidebars
- windows

#### Components - Menus & Actions (11 topics)

- activity-views
- buttons
- context-menus
- controls
- dock-menus
- edit-menus
- home-screen-quick-actions
- menus
- pop-up-buttons
- pull-down-buttons
- segmented-controls

#### Components - Navigation & Search (7 topics)

- navigation-and-search
- page-controls
- path-controls
- search-fields
- searching
- tab-bars
- toolbars

#### Components - Presentation (8 topics)

- action-sheets
- alerts
- panels
- popovers
- sheets
- the-menu-bar
- ornaments
- status-b