iOS HIG Design Guide

Use this skill to produce iOS design recommendations that stay close to official Apple guidance.

Quick start

• Sync official sources.

• Read only relevant sections.

• Produce a feature-specific spec (not a generic style dump).

Run:

python3 scripts/sync_apple_hig_sources.py --skill-dir .

Source of truth

• Full raw index with links and abstracts: references/apple-hig-ios-raw.md

• Consolidated text dump of all downloaded pages: references/apple-hig-ios-fulltext.md

• Curated text dump for iOS spec writing: references/apple-hig-ios-curated.md

• Workflow for selecting relevant HIG pages: references/ios-design-spec-workflow.md

• Per-page JSON sources: references/raw/pages/design/human-interface-guidelines/*.json

• Crawl metadata and fetch status: references/raw/catalog.json

Workflow

1. Sync and verify

• Run sync script before answering "latest" or "current" requests.

• Confirm download_error is 0 in references/raw/catalog.json .

• If errors exist, report failed paths and continue with successfully downloaded pages.

2. Narrow scope

• Start from /design/human-interface-guidelines/designing-for-ios .

• Add only sections directly related to the requested feature.

• Prioritize foundational constraints (accessibility, layout, typography, color, writing, privacy).

• Prefer references/apple-hig-ios-curated.md for day-to-day use; use full dump only when needed.

3. Extract constraints

For each selected page, pull concrete rules into implementable statements:

• When to use component/pattern

• Required states (loading, empty, error, destructive confirmation)

• Accessibility behavior (labels, hints, touch target, dynamic type)

• Localization/layout behavior (RTL, truncation, multiline)

• Platform-specific caveats (iOS-only vs cross-platform)

4. Produce deliverable

Default output structure:

• Feature goal and user scenario

• Information architecture and screen inventory

• Interaction and state model

• Component specification

• Accessibility and localization checklist

• Open questions and tradeoffs

Output style rules

• Cite source page paths for each major rule.

• Translate HIG guidance into actionable product decisions.

• Avoid copying large raw passages.

• Mark inferred recommendations explicitly as inference.

Maintenance

• Re-run sync script whenever Apple updates HIG content.

• Keep generated raw files in references/ ; do not hand-edit generated outputs.

• Update this SKILL.md only for workflow or quality improvements.