Apple updates Human Interface Guidelines with information on visionOS design principles. Design resources, including Figma design kits are available.
Apple Developer:
Figma: visionOS
Tag: Human Interface Guidelines
Apple provides more design resources
Figma design resources for iOS and iPadOS 17 now available. Sketch resources are also available.
Apple is to provide more updates on design language of visionOS. Currently, WWDC23 sessions are recommended for watching.
Also, updated fonts were published, and SF Armenian, SF Hebrew and SF Georgian are added.
All updates to Human Interface Guidelines and other resources are published on Design site.
Figma: Apple Design Resources – iOS 17 and iPadOS 17
Apple Developer:
Apple updates Human Interface Guidelines
Apple revamps Human Interface Guidelines website. Now guidelines are provided as united documents for all platforms.
Document is easier to navigate and understand, pages now contain links to appropriate development resources.
Apple Developer:
Reference: Apple Updates Its Human Interface Guidelines
Apple starts WWDC22 with many great announcements for developers
WWDC22 is here! Apple's annual conference started with Special Event day, Keynote, State of the Union and Apple Design Awards.
Apple Developer Center
It actually started on Sunday June 5th. Apple presented its new Apple Developer Center to public. Center provides an opportunity to development teams to participate in workshops hosted by Apple and meet Apple teams while working on interesting projects. Overall, Apple Developer Center brings Apple Store aesthetics to developer-focused venue.
Apple did not provide any announcements on how often it would invite developers to visit Developer Center, but general recommendation is to monitor for emails and news in Developer app.
Keynote
Before going into OS updates, let's mention Apple M2 announcement which is iterates over success of M1. New chip is presented in new MacBook Air with design following recent MacBook Pro principles. New MacBook Air is fan-less and provides full day battery life.
M2 MacBook Pro 13" is also announced with no body changes.
iOS 16
iOS 16 brings many new features including:
- Personalizable Lock Screen with widgets based on WidgetKit;
- Live Activities which extends notifications on Lock Screen with realtime updates;
- Focus mode API for developers – Focus Filters;
- Live Text API;
- Shared With You API;
- Collaboration API to allow easy collaboration start via Messages app;
- Improvements in Apple Pay, Apple Pay Later, Apple Pay Order Tracking;
- SharePlay in Messages;
- Developer mode should now be explicitly enabled on devices to allow debugging or UI automation testing;
- Simpler way of integrating Siri support – App Intents.
iPadOS 16
iPadOS gets more desktop-like features:
- M1 iPads will now be able to use Stage Manager – display up to four applications per screen (totaling with 8 apps when connected to external display) at the same time, and resize app windows;
- Finally iPad gets its own Weather app.
watchOS 9
watchOS 9 brings many features focused on fitness and health including:
- AFib constant monitoring will help people to monitor their condition and check how their behavior affects it;
- New monitoring features will help better understand the quality of the workouts and overall fitness progress.
macOS 13 Ventura
macOS also gets attention this year:
- Continuity camera now allows using iPhone in video conferencing;
- Also FaceTime calls could be handed off to Mac easily;
- Stage Manager is here to help with window clutter.
Xcode 14
Xcode 14 focuses on developer performance and adds multiple useful features for developers. Xcode Previews were rebuilt and are expected to run more smoothly.
Frameworks
As always, many existing frameworks get important updates:
- SwiftUI gets new charts library, new approach for navigation and navigation views;
- Metal 3 focuses on performance for resources and shaders;
- Nearby Communications (UWB) improvements;
- MapKit brings Maps features including Look Around to third-party apps;
- WeatherKit for weather apps;
- And many more...
App Store Review Guidelines are updated
2.5.4: Deleted requirement that apps using location background mode include a reminder that doing so may dramatically decrease battery life.
Apple Developer
4.2.3: Deleted requirement to include sufficient content in the binary for the app to function at launch.
4.7: Deleted restriction on lotteries or charitable donations in code that is not embedded in the binary.
5.2.5: If your app displays Apple Weather data, it should follow the attribution requirements provided in the WeatherKit documentation.
5.3.3: Deleted restriction on purchasing lottery or raffle tickets or initiating fund transfers in the app.
New Human Interface Guidelines are published
New Apple Human Interface Guidelines are now unified across platforms, provide links to relevant talks and design resources.
Apple Newsroom:
- Apple unveils new ways to share and communicate in iOS 16
- watchOS 9 delivers new ways to stay connected, active, and healthy
- macOS Ventura brings powerful productivity tools, new Continuity features to Mac
- Apple unveils M2 with breakthrough performance and capabilities
- Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
- iPadOS 16 takes the versatility of iPad even further
- Apple provides developers with even more powerful technologies
- Apple announces winners of the 2022 Apple Design Awards
- WWDC22 highlights
Apple Developer:
- Beta software download (DO NOT install beta versions on personal devices, beware of potential data loss)
- Watch the Keynote
- Watch the Platforms State of the Union
- Watch the Apple Design Awards
- Apple Design Award winners announced
- Xcode 14 beta now available
- Xcode Cloud now available
- Updated agreements and guidelines now available
- Meet the new Human Interface Guidelines
- What’s new for Apple developers
- Introducing WeatherKit
- Get ready for Developer Mode
Apple refreshes design resources
Apple refreshes design resources. Updates include templates, controls, fonts, etc.
Mike Stern provides more details in a tweet thread.
Weekend good reads for Apple developers, issue #7
Another round of interesting reads on development for Apple platforms.
- Getting started with associated types in Swift Protocols by Antoine v.d. SwiftLee covers somewhat complicated topic of protocols with generics;
- John Sundell continues with Specialized extensions using generic type constraints;
- EnvironmentValues from Federico Zanetello covers another aspect of SwiftUI development – environment;
- Good architecture deep dive by Scott Berrevoets – iOS Architecture at Lyft;
- Sarun W. covers interesting Swift concept in What is a KeyPath in Swift;
- And couple of long reads are described in Old Apple Human Interface Guidelines by Michael Tsai provides links to Apple's HIG documents from 1985, 1987, 1995 with interesting details, case studies and reasoning.
Have a nice weekend!
Even Google backs down from using Material Design on iOS
Google is now gradually removing Material Design components from its apps. Google sees current iOS design unique enough to avoid mixing it with Material Design. Users will see less custom components and more system-looking elements in Google apps.