iOS HIG Design Guide

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

Quick start

1. Sync official sources.
2. Read only relevant sections.
3. 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:

1. Feature goal and user scenario
2. Information architecture and screen inventory
3. Interaction and state model
4. Component specification
5. Accessibility and localization checklist
6. 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.