| name | ios-styleguide |
| description | Design and UI style guide for iOS apps. Premium consumer aesthetic, brand-forward native. |
Purpose
Enforce taste, restraint, and platform excellence. Complements security, NFR, and coding standards skills.
For brand identity (colors, fonts, design direction, anti-patterns), see /shared-brand.
Platform addition: brand-forward native — unmistakably crafted, never templated.
Typography (iOS-specific)
- System font (San Francisco) preferred for body and controls
- Display typography may be brand-forward and expressive
- Must survive Dynamic Type increases without layout failure
Liquid Glass (Apple's material system)
Appropriate uses
- Navigation chrome (top bars, tab bars)
- Sheets, modals, transient overlays
- Elevated surfaces conveying depth
- Hero/focus containers reinforcing hierarchy
Never use on
- Dense lists
- Primary reading surfaces
- Form fields and input-heavy views
- Backgrounds for long-form text
Rule: Liquid Glass must convey hierarchy or focus, not decoration. If the purpose isn't clear, don't use it.
iOS-specific anti-patterns
- Default SwiftUI previews shipped unchanged
- Boilerplate list-card patterns across screens
- iPhone layouts scaled up for iPad
- Decorative transitions or over-animated navigation
- Translucency that reduces legibility
Device support (mandatory)
- iPhone and iPad
- Adaptive layouts using size classes
- Support split view and multitasking
- Design for portrait and landscape
If a screen looks identical on iPhone and iPad, it likely underuses the platform.
Reference
For Swift tokens, adaptive layout patterns, and Liquid Glass examples, see reference/ios-styleguide-reference.md
