iOS platform

For native iOS / iPadOS apps: SwiftUI, UIKit, React Native, Expo, Flutter shipping to Apple hardware.

On native, register narrows. HIG conformance governs structure, navigation, and interaction whatever the register; brand expresses through the expressive layer the platform provides (tint, type, motion, content). Calm, Duolingo, and Spotify carry strong identity entirely inside HIG conventions.

The iOS slop test

Would a fluent iPhone user trust this app, or pause at off-spec controls? The tell is "ported from a website": reinvented navigation bars, custom back gestures, web-shaped buttons, hover-dependent affordances. Default to the platform's components; depart only for a reason the user would thank you for.

Layout & structure

Safe area. Lay out inside the safe-area insets. No controls under the notch, Dynamic Island, home indicator, or rounded corners.
System navigation. Tab bar for 2–5 top-level sections (sections, never actions), navigation stack for hierarchy, sheet for self-contained tasks. No custom global nav, no mixed metaphors.
Edge-swipe back stays alive. The left-edge back gesture is muscle memory; never disable or overlay it.
Large titles on top-level screens, collapsing to inline on scroll. Deep detail screens stay inline.

Touch targets

44×44 pt minimum for every tappable control, with breathing room between adjacent targets.

Typography

Dynamic Type. Use the system text styles (Large Title through Caption) so text follows the user's reading size. No hard-coded point sizes.
San Francisco carries the UI. Body, labels, and controls stay on SF Pro / SF Compact; a brand face may appear in display moments.
11 pt floor; Body is 17 pt.

Color & materials

Semantic system colors (label, secondaryLabel, systemBackground, separator, tint). They adapt to Dark Mode and increased contrast automatically; raw hex breaks there.
Dark Mode is a first-class appearance. Design and test both.
One tint color drives interactive elements; decoration is not its job.
System materials for blur and translucency behind bars and sheets; no hand-rolled glassmorphism.

Components & controls

Platform controls. Switch, segmented control, stepper, system pickers, action sheets, alerts, context menus, swipe actions. Reinventing these for flavor is the most common native slop.
SF Symbols for iconography: baseline-aligned, Dynamic Type-aware, weight and scale variants. Don't mix in a web icon set.
Deliberate modality. Sheet for a focused dismissible sub-task, full-screen cover for immersion. Clear Cancel/Done; honor swipe-to-dismiss unless data loss requires a guard.
Grouped/inset lists for settings-shaped content; no bespoke card stacks.

Motion

System transitions. Push slides, sheets rise, dismiss reverses the entrance. Custom transitions that fight the navigation model disorient.
Honor Reduce Motion. Crossfade instead of parallax and large slides.

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