Apple Design Guidelines Overview + Full Library Reverse Lookup Map (HIG Navigation Core)

This is organized by Will Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) Chinese-English bilingual notes entry point. The original materials consist of over 135 articles covering all platforms, reorganized in this library into 14 topic wikis.When you encounter any Apple design question, first locate which wiki to read here, instead of flipping through the original documents from the beginning.

1. Apple divides "design knowledge" into 4 categories of tags (check which category an article belongs to before reading it)

Apple's design documents are not flat; every article implicitly carries a "hierarchy". Once you understand these 4 categories, you will know whether an article is a "belief" or an "operation manual":

How to use: When you see an article tagged "Principles", it provides rules you can directly copy and follow (e.g., "button tap area ≥ 44×44pt"); when you see one tagged "Strategy", it provides a thinking framework (e.g., "how to optimize the first-launch experience"), which you need to judge against your own product.

2. Three-Dimensional Methodology (the skeleton of Apple's design system)

Apple builds its entire design system on three dimensions. Once you understand these three dimensions, the scattered guidelines will connect into a tree:

mindmap
  root((Apple 设计体系))
    原子设计方法论
      基础原子(颜色/字体/图标/材质)
      组件(按钮/列表/菜单)
      模式(引导/搜索/反馈)
    多平台设计
      iOS / iPadOS / macOS
      watchOS / tvOS
      visionOS / CarPlay
    设计层次模型
      理念 Philosophy
      概念 Concept
      原则 Principles
      策略 Strategy

· Atomic Design (Atomic Design): Starting from the smallest "atoms" (colors, fonts, a single icon) → combined into "components" (buttons, lists) → then composed into "patterns" (a complete onboarding flow). Wiki #2 Foundations (atoms), #4 Components (components), and #5 Patterns (patterns) in this library correspond exactly to these three layers. · Multi-platform: The same set of design languages needs to land on 7 types of screens (from the watch on the wrist to the infinite space of visionOS), and the device characteristics of each platform force different tradeoffs — see the next section. · Hierarchy Model: That is the 4 categories of tags described above.

3. Quick Reference for 7 Major Platforms (recognize which screen you are designing for before starting)

The "device characteristics" of each platform directly determine design tradeoffs. This is a decision table distilled from the 7 "Designing for X" articles — when you receive a requirement for a platform, first scan this table to align your mental model:

Universal iron rules across platforms (emphasized in all 7 articles):

· Seamlessly adapt to appearance changes — Must support Dark Mode, Dynamic Type, and device rotation.Do not implement a separate appearance switch inside the app (it adds burden and makes users think the app does not respond to system settings). · Integrate platform features — Reuse system capabilities (widgets, Shortcuts, biometrics, location) under authorization, do not ask users to re-enter data that the system already has. · Ergonomics determine control placement — For the same "primary action button", place it at the bottom on iPhone (within thumb reach), on the toolbar on Mac, and trigger it via the action button on watch.

4. Full Library Reverse Lookup Map (I want to look up X → which wiki to read)

Correspondence between the 14 wikis in this library and the original document folders.This is the section you will use most often:

Original document location: All files are in sources/reference/apple-design/, retaining the original Notion folder structure. Attached images (3443 in total) and demo videos (867 in total) are stored locally and not committed to git — open the original documents in Obsidian to view images and videos; only the.md text is visible on GitHub.

5. Getting Started: Core Tradeoffs of the 7 "Designing for X" Articles (key excerpts from the originals)

Below is the "single most memorable sentence" for each of the 7 platform introductory articles, for quick recall. For detailed guidelines, go to the respective platform wikis:

· Minimum font size for each platform (accessibility baseline): Recommended minimum body text size is 17pt for iOS/iPadOS, 19pt for macOS, 23pt for iPad, 11pt for visionOS/watchOS; minimum in-game text: iOS 11pt / macOS 10pt / tvOS 23pt. · Minimum tap target size for each platform: iOS 44×44pt (visionOS 60×60pt); minimum game button size: iOS 28×28 / macOS 20×20 / tvOS 56×56pt.

This wiki is the navigation entry for the Apple HIG Chinese-English bilingual notes library. Original materials = Will's Design Notes / Apple Design (exported from Notion), archived at sources/reference/apple-design/.