Steppers
A stepper sits next to a field that displays its current value, because the stepper itself doesn’t display a value.
Best practices
Make the value that a stepper affects obvious. A stepper itself doesn’t display any values, so make sure people know which value they’re changing when they use a stepper.
Consider pairing a stepper with a text field when large value changes are likely. Steppers work well by themselves for making small changes that require a few taps or clicks. By contrast, people appreciate the option to use a field to enter specific values, especially when the values they use can vary widely. On a printing screen, for example, it can help to have both a stepper and a text field to set the number of copies.
Platform considerations
No additional considerations for iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS. Not supported in watchOS or tvOS.
macOS
For large value ranges, consider supporting Shift-click to change the value quickly. If your app benefits from larger changes in a stepper’s value, it can be useful to let people Shift-click the stepper to change the value by more than the default increment (by 10 times the default, for example).
Resources
Related
Developer documentation
UIStepper
— UIKit
NSStepper
— AppKit