IOS APP DESIGN GUIDELIES
https://createbytes.com/insights/ui-design-guidelines-for-ios/
Most designers dream of designing products that grow to the top of the IOS App Store list. But to do so, it is important to design them to meet high expectations for value and functionality. Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) is a must-read source for anyone who wants to learn an ios app design.
In this article, I want to provide a summary of the essential design principles and specific design recommendations from HIG for iOS designers.
Design principles
In HIG, Apple defines five basic principles of ios app design:
1. Consistency
A consistent app uses consistent graphic and efficient language. In general, elements with comparable functions should look similar. Constancy builds a sense of understanding and simplifies the process of communication with an app for first-time users.
2. Feedback
Feedback allows actions and shows the results of any procedure. Feedback is what makes people informed. iOS designers have various ways of offering feedback — graphical feedback on tapping and audio feedback for alerting users about certain operations.
3. Metaphors
An interface metaphor is a UI visual that influences knowledge users already have from real life. Metaphors allow users to discover more quickly because they can use the knowledge grown from the real-world when interacting with digital products. The most prominent metaphor in human-computer interaction and UX design is “Alan Kay’s desktop metaphor”. The desktop metaphor shifted us from typing command to direct control with digitally made objects.
4. Direct manipulation
Users experience direct manipulation when they use gestures to interact with on screen content. Direct manipulation helps users see instant results of their actions.
5. User control
iOS sets people not the system, in control. Good iOS design stops users from making errors by suggesting a way, but it should certainly not push users in making some decisions.
Design recommendations
iOS is a large platform, and it’s impossible to provide all possible design recommendations in a format of a single article, but still, it’s possible to provide a few of the most important recommendations that mobile designers should remember:
Don’t hide the notch
The notch is an element that avoids iOS screen from being edge-to-edge. It might be exciting to hide the notch area with a black bar to make a complete square screen, but it is safer not to do it. Why? There are a couple of reasons for that:
·
You make the display look smaller than it is. The area of the notch provides the sense of space for the content to be displayed. For example, if you use a Google map in your app, it will not suffer by being clipped by the notch.
· By hiding notch, you make your app look uneven with other iOS apps.
If possible, use single, system typeface
Typography plays an important role in any digital product, and iOS app design is not an exception. When it comes to picking a typeface for your app, it is advised to use a system typeface of iOS. The default font of iOS is called San Francisco. The fonts of San Francisco are optimized to give your text unique readability, transparency, and reliability.
It is important to know that when using a system font, you will have right to use to energetic type, which lets the font adjust based on the user’s preference.
Use vibrant colors to bring out interactive elements
Vibrant colors are a simple yet compelling way to supervise the user’s attention to a specific UI element. Vivid color works equally well on the white and dark background.
Conclusion
The first iPhone was launched more than a decade ago. If you compare the first original iPhone with the iPhone 11, you will see the headway Apple made along the way. The same advancement we have in the process of design & development for the iOS platform. Human Interface Guidelines and provide essential information about the requirements for the modern iOS app.
