Old Apple Human Interface Guidelines
Why are there no “standard texts” on designing software interfaces? (or tell me I’m wrong?)
If you want to learn to build software, there are excellent and complete texts on the subject. It’s not just a tech-vs-art thing: there are standard texts on type, drawing, color, etc.
[S]everal people mentioned the original 1987 Apple Human Interface Guidelines, which I’d not read. It’s not a comprehensive primer on interface design, but it is an extraordinary read—a huge amount of detail on why things are as they are. And a great bibliography!
Oh my gosh, and there’s a (pre-release) 1985 HIG that’s quite different. It includes e.g. case studies (useful!), and an extended discussion of Jung’s theories of intuition and how they should influence your designs (!!)
There’s a 1995 version here. I like Tog on Interface.
Previously:
- ARKit Human Interface Guidelines
- Yosemite Developer Documentation
- Apple Pay Human Interface Guidelines
- Apple Shifts Its Icon Guidelines
- Leopard HIG
- Utility Windows
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[…] couple of long reads are described in Old Apple Human Interface Guidelines by Michael Tsai provides links to Apple’s HIG documents from 1985, 1987, 1995 with […]
