{"id":33913,"date":"2021-10-15T15:39:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T19:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=33913"},"modified":"2026-08-17T09:41:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:41:29","slug":"old-apple-human-interface-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/15\/old-apple-human-interface-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Apple Human Interface Guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andy_matuschak\/status\/1440847231301550085\">Andy Matuschak<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andy_matuschak\/status\/1440847231301550085\"><p>Why are there no &ldquo;standard texts&rdquo; on designing software interfaces? (or tell me I&rsquo;m wrong?)<\/p><p>If you want to learn to <em>build<\/em> software, there are excellent and complete texts on the subject. It&rsquo;s not just a tech-vs-art thing: there are standard texts on type, drawing, color, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andy_matuschak\/status\/1447407670403612672\">Andy Matuschak<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andy_matuschak\/status\/1447407670403612672\"><p>[S]everal people mentioned the original <a href=\"https:\/\/andymatuschak.org\/files\/papers\/Apple%20Human%20Interface%20Guidelines%201987.pdf\">1987 Apple Human Interface Guidelines<\/a>, which I&rsquo;d not read. It&rsquo;s not a comprehensive primer on interface design, but it is an extraordinary read&mdash;a huge amount of detail on <em>why<\/em> things are as they are. And a great bibliography!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andy_matuschak\/status\/1447710247712280578\">Andy Matuschak<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andy_matuschak\/status\/1447710247712280578\">\n<p>Oh my gosh, and there&rsquo;s a (pre-release) <a href=\"https:\/\/mirrors.apple2.org.za\/Apple%20II%20Documentation%20Project\/Companies\/Apple\/Documentation\/Apple%20II%20Human%20Interface%20Guidelines%201985.pdf\">1985 HIG<\/a> that&rsquo;s quite different. It includes e.g. case studies (useful!), and an extended discussion of Jung&rsquo;s theories of intuition and how they should influence your designs (!!)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>There&rsquo;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/interface.free.fr\/Archives\/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf\">1995 version here<\/a>. I like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rcarmo\/status\/1447576707792314368\">Tog on Interface<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/01\/arkit-human-interface-guidelines\/\">ARKit Human Interface Guidelines<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/21\/yosemite-developer-documentation\/\">Yosemite Developer Documentation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/22\/apple-pay-human-interface-guidelines\/\">Apple Pay Human Interface Guidelines<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/19\/apple-shifts-its-icon-guidelines\/\">Apple Shifts Its Icon Guidelines<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/16\/leopard-hig\/\">Leopard HIG<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/06\/utility-windows\/\">Utility Windows<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"old-apple-human-interface-guidelines-update-2025-01-13\">Update (2025-01-13): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/112751817896831142\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/112751817896831142\"><p>Over the years, I have scoured the internet for various versions of the Mac HIG PDFs. Here is my collection so far.<\/p><p>Some neat ones include HIGs for Mac OS 8 &amp; a preliminary Mac OS X version from the Public Beta.<\/p><p>These HIGs contain general desktop guidelines that still apply today &amp; that you can&rsquo;t find in the modern HIG.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/gingerbeardman\/apple-human-interface-guidelines\">Matt Sephton&rsquo;s repo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p id=\"old-apple-human-interface-guidelines-update-2026-08-17\">Update (<a href=\"#old-apple-human-interface-guidelines-update-2026-08-17\">2026-08-17<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geofcrowl.com\/blog\/articles\/2020\/2\/17\/collection-higs\/\">Geof Crowl<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.geofcrowl.com\/blog\/articles\/2020\/2\/17\/collection-higs\/\">\n<p>After posting about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geofcrowl.com\/blog\/articles\/2020\/2\/13\/openstep-user-interface-guidelines\/\">OpenStep User Interface Guide<\/a>, I started to wonder how many different human interface guides or software design guides that I could find from the past and present.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.aresluna.org\/i-think-theres-a-lot-of-value-in-these\/\">Marcin Wichary<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/unsung.aresluna.org\/i-think-theres-a-lot-of-value-in-these\/\">\n<p>Let me add a few more I know of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/amiga-user-interface-style-guide\">Amiga User Interface Style Guide<\/a> (1991)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.datarover.com\/Develop\/MagicCap\/Docs\/Concepts\/contents.html\">Magic Cap Concepts<\/a> (1995) with a strange subtitle &ldquo;Everything right is wrong again&rdquo;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ashcavai.com\/JLFDG05.pdf\">Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines<\/a> (1999)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/windowsinterface00micr\">Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design<\/a> (1995)<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Matuschak: Why are there no &ldquo;standard texts&rdquo; on designing software interfaces? (or tell me I&rsquo;m wrong?)If you want to learn to build software, there are excellent and complete texts on the subject. It&rsquo;s not just a tech-vs-art thing: there are standard texts on type, drawing, color, etc. Andy Matuschak: [S]everal people mentioned the original [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-10-15T19:39:47Z","apple_news_api_id":"8c3602d7-587f-40be-9e4e-47ba12c9cb87","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-08-17T13:41:33Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AjDYC11h_QL6eTke6EsnLhw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[406,63,77,164,295,30,718,299,1808],"class_list":["post-33913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-appleii","tag-book","tag-design","tag-documentation","tag-history","tag-mac","tag-nextstep","tag-palm","tag-playdate"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33913"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52924,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913\/revisions\/52924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}