Design Glossary

The practice of designing for all users including those with vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive differences. Apple's accessibility features include VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Switch Control, AssistiveTouch, and Reduce Motion.

A layout strategy that changes structure based on size class — for example, replacing a tab bar with a sidebar when transitioning from Compact to Regular width.

A lightweight portion of an app (under 15MB) that users can discover and use instantly via NFC tags, QR codes, or App Clip Codes without downloading the full app.

The current light or dark appearance mode. Components should adapt to both using semantic colors or by providing explicit light/dark values via Color assets or UIColor resolvers.

A small, glanceable element on the Apple Watch face that displays app information. Built with ClockKit (deprecated) or WidgetKit. Available in corner, circular, rectangular, and inline families.

A menu triggered by long press (touch) or secondary click (pointer). Shows a preview of the content and a list of relevant actions. Replaces the deprecated peek-and-pop 3D Touch interaction.

Apple's signature corner rounding technique (also called 'squircles') that uses a superellipse rather than circular arcs. Creates smoother, more organic corners. Apply via cornerCurve: .continuous (UIKit) or .containerShape(.rect(cornerRadius:style:)) (SwiftUI).

A system-wide appearance that uses dark backgrounds and light foreground content. Reduces eye strain in low-light conditions. Apps should support Dark Mode using semantic colors and appearance-aware assets.

Colors resolved at runtime based on trait environment (color scheme, accessibility settings, contrast level). Created with UIColor or Color initializers that provide values for each appearance.

A hardware/software feature on iPhone 14 Pro and later that replaces the notch with an interactive, expanding pill-shaped area. Live Activities can surface real-time information here.

A system that scales text sizes based on the user's preferred reading size (set in Settings > Accessibility). Apps should support all 12 size categories from xSmall to AX5 using text styles.

The mechanism for navigating UI with keyboards, game controllers, or Siri Remote. On tvOS, the focused element is highlighted and enlarged. On iOS/iPadOS, keyboard focus shows a focus ring.

An object that detects specific touch patterns: tap, long press, pan, pinch, rotation, swipe, and screen edge pan. Multiple recognizers can work simultaneously with dependency and failure requirements.

Physical vibration feedback triggered by UI events. Three engines: UIImpactFeedbackGenerator (physical impacts), UISelectionFeedbackGenerator (selection changes), UINotificationFeedbackGenerator (success/warning/error).

Visual feedback when a pointer (trackpad, mouse, Apple Pencil hover) moves over an interactive element. System effects include Highlight, Lift, and Automatic. Available on iPadOS 13.4+ and visionOS.

An accessibility setting that strengthens the visual distinction between foreground and background. When enabled, system colors shift to higher-contrast alternatives and borders become more visible.

A gesture-driven transition where the user drags to dismiss a sheet, card, or full-screen view. The animation follows the finger position in real-time, with spring physics handling the completion or cancellation.

System-defined insets that provide consistent padding from screen edges. On iPhone, 16pt leading/trailing; on iPad, margins increase with width. Use layoutMarginsGuide or .padding() for automatic margins.

Real-time, updating UI that appears on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, showing ongoing events (sports scores, delivery tracking, timers). Built with ActivityKit and updated via push notifications.

A SwiftUI animation technique where an element smoothly transitions position and size between two views using .matchedGeometryEffect(). Used for hero transitions and shared element animations.

iPad modes (Split View, Slide Over, Stage Manager) that change the available width and size class. Apps must adapt their layout when the user enters or exits multitasking modes.

A two- or three-column layout (sidebar, content, detail) used on iPad and Mac. Collapses to a navigation stack on compact-width devices. Replaces UISplitViewController.

A container that manages a stack of views with push/pop navigation. Each pushed view gets a back button. The root view typically has a large title that collapses on scroll.

Display P3 is Apple's wide color gamut that covers 25% more visible colors than sRGB. All modern Apple displays support P3. Use Asset Catalogs to provide P3 color values.

A transient view that appears from a source point, used for brief interactions or contextual information. On iPad shows as a floating bubble; on iPhone falls back to a sheet.

A layout guide that constrains content width to a comfortable reading measure (about 70 characters). Automatically adjusts based on Dynamic Type size and available width.

An accessibility setting that minimizes animation. When enabled, apps should replace motion-heavy transitions (zooms, slides, bounces) with simple crossfades. Check with UIAccessibility.isReduceMotionEnabled.

The region of the screen not obscured by system UI (status bar, home indicator, navigation bar, Dynamic Island). Content should be inset to the safe area; backgrounds can extend beyond it.

Named colors that describe their function rather than appearance — Label, SecondaryLabel, TertiaryLabel, SystemBackground, SystemGroupedBackground, Separator, etc. These adapt across all appearance modes.

Apple's condensed system font designed for watchOS, complications, and narrow UI contexts. Features tighter letter spacing and a more compact design than SF Pro.

Apple's monospaced system font for code, terminal output, and tabular data. Supports all standard weights and Dynamic Type scaling.

Apple's system font family for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. Includes SF Pro Text (optimized for small sizes), SF Pro Display (for large sizes), and SF Pro Rounded.

A library of 5,000+ configurable vector icons designed to integrate with San Francisco system fonts. Support four rendering modes (Monochrome, Hierarchical, Palette, Multicolor) and variable color for animated state changes.

A modal presentation that slides up from the bottom. Available in .medium (half-height) and .large (full-height) detents. Can be interactive (non-blocking) or modal (requires dismissal).

A trait that classifies the available horizontal and vertical space as Compact or Regular. Used to trigger layout changes — e.g., switching from stack to sidebar navigation. Set by the system based on device, orientation, and multitasking mode.

The default animation type in Apple platforms that simulates physical spring dynamics. Defined by mass, stiffness, and damping (or response, dampingFraction, blendDuration in SwiftUI). Feels natural because it has no fixed duration.

A windowing mode on iPad (M1+) and macOS that enables resizable, overlapping windows with external display support. Changes the available size class and requires fully adaptive layouts.

A lightweight, declarative struct conforming to the View protocol. Views are value types that describe UI — the framework manages creation, diffing, and updating of the underlying render tree.

A set of dynamically adaptive colors (Blue, Green, Indigo, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Teal, Yellow, Brown, Cyan, Mint) that automatically adjust for light/dark mode, accessibility settings, and vibrancy contexts.

A container with a tab bar at the bottom (iOS) or top (macOS) providing top-level navigation between 3–5 sections. Each tab maintains its own navigation state.

Semantic type roles (Large Title, Title, Headline, Body, Callout, Subheadline, Footnote, Caption) that map to specific font sizes and weights, and scale with Dynamic Type.

The minimum tappable area for interactive elements. Apple recommends 44×44pt minimum for all tap targets to ensure comfortable, error-free interaction.

A collection of traits (size class, display scale, color scheme, layout direction, accessibility settings) that describes the current rendering context. Accessed via UITraitCollection or @Environment in SwiftUI.

An object that manages a screen or portion of a screen. Handles view lifecycle (viewDidLoad, viewWillAppear, etc.), rotation, and trait changes. The foundation of imperative Apple UI development.

A single font file containing multiple axes of variation (weight, width, optical size). SF Pro is a variable font, allowing smooth weight transitions and precise optical size matching.

A visual effect that adjusts foreground content colors to maintain legibility and visual depth when placed over translucent materials. Available as Label, Secondary Label, Tertiary Label, Quaternary Label, and Separator vibrancy levels.

Apple's built-in screen reader that speaks UI elements aloud and enables gesture-based navigation for blind and low-vision users. Apps must provide meaningful accessibility labels, hints, and traits.

A glanceable view displayed on the Home Screen, Lock Screen, or StandBy that shows timely, relevant information. Built with WidgetKit using timeline entries. Available in Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large sizes.