Human Interface Guidelines

2010–2022 · 10 versionsVisit the live site ↗

Apple's design guidelines for its platforms, on the web. The core screen is the guidelines' front page.

In the archive: Guidelines

Every version

Newest first. A date is the day a capture saw the design, so a redesign can be older than its date.

13 industry events, 2010–2022

2021.10Windows 11 · Fluent's second generation: rounded corners, Mica material and a centred taskbar.
2021.05Material You · Announced at Google I/O: colour drawn from your wallpaper and much larger shapes; ships with Android 12 that October.
2020.11macOS Big Sur · The desktop moves toward iOS: big radii, translucency.
2018.09Dark mode goes system-wide · First macOS Mojave (September 2018), then iOS 13 and Android 10 (September 2019).
2017.11Tailwind CSS · A utility-first CSS framework, first released in November 2017.
2017.11iPhone X · Notch, edge-to-edge screen, gesture navigation, rounded display corners.
2017.05Fluent Design · Acrylic, depth and light; the swing back from strict flatness begins.
2016.09Figma public launch · Collaborative, browser-based design tooling changes how interfaces get made.
2014.06Material Design · Google's paper-and-ink system: shadows, elevation and motion get a rulebook.
2013.06iOS 7 · Unveiled in June, shipped in September: Apple drops skeuomorphism for thin type, translucency and flat colour.
2012.10Windows 8 · Metro comes to the desktop: a full-screen Start screen of flat, coloured live tiles.
2011.08Bootstrap · Twitter open-sources its interface toolkit; its buttons, navbars and grid become a common default on the web.
2010.10Windows Phone 7 (Metro) · Microsoft's Metro brings a flat, typographic interface to a mainstream phone platform.