Explore the art and science of app design. Discuss user interface (UI) design principles, user experience (UX) best practices, and share design resources and inspiration.

Learn about designing great app and game experiences

Posts under General subtopic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Huge UI difference between Simulator and Real Device
Hi everyone, I’m testing our SwiftUI app on both Xcode simulator and a real iPhone. On the simulator, everything looks clean and aligned. But when I run it on an actual iPhone (same build, iOS 18), the layout looks broken—fonts overlap, spacing is off, and elements are misaligned. Both screenshots are from the exact same screen and time. First is simulator, second is iPhone. Any idea why this difference happens? Is there something I should check in terms of rendering or layout settings? Thanks in advance!
1
0
294
Jul ’25
How to create a custom SF Symbol using Affinity Designer
When I first tried to create a custom SF Symbol using Affinity Designer, I encountered difficulties because of two problems which have cumulated: SVG files created by Affinity Designer cannot be directly imported into the SF Symbols app because Affinity Designer totally recreates the content of tag <g id="Notes">, making so the file incompatible for later import into the SF Symbols app. So I had to manually fix that tag via a text editor in order to make the file compatible with the SF Symbols app. Because I was so focused on fixing manually the SVG file, I did not see that the actual content of my SVG file did not follow all Apple recommendations. As a consequence, I have posted this question on the forum: Struggling creating a custom SF Symbol: The provided variants are not interpolatable Finally I have found a way to create an SVG file compatible with SF Symbols using Affinity Designer, meeting the Apple recommendations, and at last perfectly suitable for further use in Xcode. You will find the solution in my reply to this post below which is actually a quasi copy/paste of my final own reply to my original post. Marc
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
1
0
225
Jun ’25
SF Symbols 7
Will the draw (animation) functionality of SF Symbols be available when symbols are cut/pasted into a Keynote presentation? Better yet, will the draw tools from SF Symbols 7 be available in Keynote for objects created in Keynote?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
1
0
200
Jun ’25
ipados 26 and xib
hi, i have an objc ipad application that use xib with zooming for adapt to the screen (until ios18) but with ipad os 26 will be displayed wrong
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
6
0
234
Jul ’25
Live Weather Radar Overlay in CarPlay Maps
Hi all — I wanted to share an idea I recently submitted through Feedback Assistant that I think could improve safety and usability for drivers using CarPlay: Add an option to overlay live weather radar (rain, snow, storms, etc.) directly onto CarPlay Maps while navigating. Similar to how traffic conditions are shown now, this would allow drivers to visually track incoming weather in real time without switching apps or relying on separate devices. Why this matters: • Enhances driver safety by increasing situational awareness • Helps with trip planning and route adjustments around severe weather • Reduces distractions by integrating everything into one screen • Useful for everyday drivers, long-haul travelers, and first responders I submitted this via Feedback Assistant, but I’d love to know what others think. If you also see value in this feature, consider submitting your own version via Feedback Assistant so Apple sees there’s interest. Let’s push for smarter, safer navigation — thanks for reading!
3
0
871
Jul ’25
Handling Context Save Errors
I was wondering if errors are common for the code below for saving SwiftData data and what would be the best way to handle them (popup, closing the app)? do { try modelContext.save() } catch { print("error") }
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
1
0
292
Jan ’26
Requirements for application functions that use some WeatherKit data
Hi there I have developed an offline algorithm for calculating tides, which works based on the built-in database of tidal stations in some regions. The algorithm works correctly and the results match the real data. I would like to receive and add moon data from Weather Kit to the algorithm for performance improvement experiments. What requirements do I need to apply to the application so that I can use data from Weather Kit in my algorithm ?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
1
0
81
Jun ’25
tvOS alternative app icons
Does anyone know if alternate app icons are actually supposed to work for Apple TV projects? We tried to set this up, and while it works in Debug, we run into validation errors when uploading the app to App Store Connect. Is this feature officially supported on tvOS, or is it iOS-only?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
1
0
263
Mar ’26
List View within a Scrollview
The bane of my existence has been designing interfaces where the whole view needs to scroll, but a portion is a List and the other portion is static. I run into this problem time and again so I was hoping someone has a good solution because we all know that embedding a List view inside ScrollView is a no-go within SwiftUI. It simply doesn't work. So what is a best practice when you need the whole screen to scroll, but a portion is a List? Use a navigation stack instead of a ScrollView? What if it's a child view of a navigation stack already?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
2
0
791
Jul ’25
CPContactTemplate does not display buttons iOS26
I'm trying to display CPButtons (CPContactCallButton, CPContactMessageButton) in CPContactTemplate. They are displayed using device with iOS16, but with iOS26 device CPContactTemplate only displays contact image and contact name. No buttons. Is it a bug? I don't have iOS17/18 devices to try.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
3
0
393
Feb ’26
Struggling creating a custom SF Symbol: The provided variants are not interpolatable
Hi, I am trying to create a custom SF Symbol from an SVG file created with Affinity Designer but, even though my SVG file look perfect in Firefox for example compared to the exported custom.circle.svg file (as recommended in Apple's documentation), I fail to get rid of this error: "The provided variants are not interpolatable" My creation process using Affinity Designer is: Export as SVG file Duplicate the custom.circle.svg file exported from the SF Symbols app In the new file, replace the 3 "path" tags in the "g" sections "id="Black-S", "Regular-S", "Ultralight-S" with the paths from the SVG file exported from Affinity designer Set the 3 transform matrices to "matrix(1 0 0 1 0 0)" for the 3 variants to be generated at the correct location. Verify in an SVG viewer that the file looks correct. Import the file via Drag&Drop into the SF Symbols app. What is wrong with my file? Thank you in advance for any help, Marc mySymbol.svg.txt
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
3
0
218
Jun ’25
Novice SwiftUI developer can't make network call
I'm trying to use URL structure in the foundation framework and it is failing to build, returning a nil value. Could it be trying to evaluate the string I am giving it as a variable for its argument at build time? Is there a test argument I can give URL to see if it can return a non-nil value? (of URL type)?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
17
0
1.7k
Sep ’25
Apple Intelligence and Siri
I downloaded iOS 26 beta 3. I was very happy with how it turned out, but when I activated Siri, I noticed the rainbow pulsing glow that bordered the phone was missing, and all that was left was the original Siri bubble. I was very disappointed, does anyone know how to get this back? I loved that design feature.
1
0
356
Jul ’25
Urgent Feature Request: Auto-Hide Home Bar in iOS 18.x Based on iOS 26 Beta Experience
Hello Apple Engineering Team and Fellow Developers, I’ve been using iOS 26 beta from day one and closely following all its improvements. One feature that significantly enhances the user experience is the automatic hiding of the Home Bar (the bottom navigation indicator) after a few seconds of inactivity in menus and apps. This subtle but powerful UI behavior not only increases immersion but also reduces distractions, making navigation smoother and visually cleaner. I strongly urge the Apple team to integrate this feature into the upcoming iOS 18.6 update. Bringing this polished interaction to iOS 18 users would greatly improve usability and keep the interface modern and elegant. Thank you for your continuous efforts in refining iOS. Looking forward to seeing this improvement officially adopted soon! Best regards, [ERFANEX]
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
3
0
597
Jul ’25
Huge UI difference between Simulator and Real Device
Hi everyone, I’m testing our SwiftUI app on both Xcode simulator and a real iPhone. On the simulator, everything looks clean and aligned. But when I run it on an actual iPhone (same build, iOS 18), the layout looks broken—fonts overlap, spacing is off, and elements are misaligned. Both screenshots are from the exact same screen and time. First is simulator, second is iPhone. Any idea why this difference happens? Is there something I should check in terms of rendering or layout settings? Thanks in advance!
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
294
Activity
Jul ’25
How to create a custom SF Symbol using Affinity Designer
When I first tried to create a custom SF Symbol using Affinity Designer, I encountered difficulties because of two problems which have cumulated: SVG files created by Affinity Designer cannot be directly imported into the SF Symbols app because Affinity Designer totally recreates the content of tag <g id="Notes">, making so the file incompatible for later import into the SF Symbols app. So I had to manually fix that tag via a text editor in order to make the file compatible with the SF Symbols app. Because I was so focused on fixing manually the SVG file, I did not see that the actual content of my SVG file did not follow all Apple recommendations. As a consequence, I have posted this question on the forum: Struggling creating a custom SF Symbol: The provided variants are not interpolatable Finally I have found a way to create an SVG file compatible with SF Symbols using Affinity Designer, meeting the Apple recommendations, and at last perfectly suitable for further use in Xcode. You will find the solution in my reply to this post below which is actually a quasi copy/paste of my final own reply to my original post. Marc
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
225
Activity
Jun ’25
SF Symbols 7
Will the draw (animation) functionality of SF Symbols be available when symbols are cut/pasted into a Keynote presentation? Better yet, will the draw tools from SF Symbols 7 be available in Keynote for objects created in Keynote?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
200
Activity
Jun ’25
Can I use apple.logo placed on the top of apple sign in related view?
I placed apple.logo symbol image on the top of a view. This view is used to link or unlink Apple ID for user. In the middle is the apple sign in button. I want to use something to describe or represent what the view is, instead of using text description. so I think sign in's company logo is a good choice. Is it allowed by apple official?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
1.2k
Activity
Nov ’25
ipados 26 and xib
hi, i have an objc ipad application that use xib with zooming for adapt to the screen (until ios18) but with ipad os 26 will be displayed wrong
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
Replies
6
Boosts
0
Views
234
Activity
Jul ’25
The new appearance system
Not sure if anyone else has this issue, however with the new appearances when i use the dark appearance and then open the app "TickTick", the icon goes to its original colour until the app is closed.
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
979
Activity
Dec ’25
Live Weather Radar Overlay in CarPlay Maps
Hi all — I wanted to share an idea I recently submitted through Feedback Assistant that I think could improve safety and usability for drivers using CarPlay: Add an option to overlay live weather radar (rain, snow, storms, etc.) directly onto CarPlay Maps while navigating. Similar to how traffic conditions are shown now, this would allow drivers to visually track incoming weather in real time without switching apps or relying on separate devices. Why this matters: • Enhances driver safety by increasing situational awareness • Helps with trip planning and route adjustments around severe weather • Reduces distractions by integrating everything into one screen • Useful for everyday drivers, long-haul travelers, and first responders I submitted this via Feedback Assistant, but I’d love to know what others think. If you also see value in this feature, consider submitting your own version via Feedback Assistant so Apple sees there’s interest. Let’s push for smarter, safer navigation — thanks for reading!
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
871
Activity
Jul ’25
How can I create a custom Matchmaker View Controller in Game Center (macOS)
I am creating a shooting game which uses Game Center for multiplayer and I want to make the Matchmaker view look different. How can I do that?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
128
Activity
Sep ’25
Handling Context Save Errors
I was wondering if errors are common for the code below for saving SwiftData data and what would be the best way to handle them (popup, closing the app)? do { try modelContext.save() } catch { print("error") }
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
292
Activity
Jan ’26
iPhone 16 Pro Max wallpapers and iPad wallpapers
Hi community my name is Adam Robles. I have a question. I recently downloaded the beta on my iPad Pro 13 inch and I noticed where are the iPad wallpapers I only get one wallpaper, but where what happened to the wallpaper that was released with iPad last year
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
223
Activity
Jun ’25
Bring back the white thing that brings "home" on IOS 26
Please
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
344
Activity
Jul ’25
Requirements for application functions that use some WeatherKit data
Hi there I have developed an offline algorithm for calculating tides, which works based on the built-in database of tidal stations in some regions. The algorithm works correctly and the results match the real data. I would like to receive and add moon data from Weather Kit to the algorithm for performance improvement experiments. What requirements do I need to apply to the application so that I can use data from Weather Kit in my algorithm ?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
81
Activity
Jun ’25
tvOS alternative app icons
Does anyone know if alternate app icons are actually supposed to work for Apple TV projects? We tried to set this up, and while it works in Debug, we run into validation errors when uploading the app to App Store Connect. Is this feature officially supported on tvOS, or is it iOS-only?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
263
Activity
Mar ’26
List View within a Scrollview
The bane of my existence has been designing interfaces where the whole view needs to scroll, but a portion is a List and the other portion is static. I run into this problem time and again so I was hoping someone has a good solution because we all know that embedding a List view inside ScrollView is a no-go within SwiftUI. It simply doesn't work. So what is a best practice when you need the whole screen to scroll, but a portion is a List? Use a navigation stack instead of a ScrollView? What if it's a child view of a navigation stack already?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
791
Activity
Jul ’25
CPContactTemplate does not display buttons iOS26
I'm trying to display CPButtons (CPContactCallButton, CPContactMessageButton) in CPContactTemplate. They are displayed using device with iOS16, but with iOS26 device CPContactTemplate only displays contact image and contact name. No buttons. Is it a bug? I don't have iOS17/18 devices to try.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
393
Activity
Feb ’26
Struggling creating a custom SF Symbol: The provided variants are not interpolatable
Hi, I am trying to create a custom SF Symbol from an SVG file created with Affinity Designer but, even though my SVG file look perfect in Firefox for example compared to the exported custom.circle.svg file (as recommended in Apple's documentation), I fail to get rid of this error: "The provided variants are not interpolatable" My creation process using Affinity Designer is: Export as SVG file Duplicate the custom.circle.svg file exported from the SF Symbols app In the new file, replace the 3 "path" tags in the "g" sections "id="Black-S", "Regular-S", "Ultralight-S" with the paths from the SVG file exported from Affinity designer Set the 3 transform matrices to "matrix(1 0 0 1 0 0)" for the 3 variants to be generated at the correct location. Verify in an SVG viewer that the file looks correct. Import the file via Drag&Drop into the SF Symbols app. What is wrong with my file? Thank you in advance for any help, Marc mySymbol.svg.txt
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
218
Activity
Jun ’25
Novice SwiftUI developer can't make network call
I'm trying to use URL structure in the foundation framework and it is failing to build, returning a nil value. Could it be trying to evaluate the string I am giving it as a variable for its argument at build time? Is there a test argument I can give URL to see if it can return a non-nil value? (of URL type)?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
Replies
17
Boosts
0
Views
1.7k
Activity
Sep ’25
Apple Intelligence and Siri
I downloaded iOS 26 beta 3. I was very happy with how it turned out, but when I activated Siri, I noticed the rainbow pulsing glow that bordered the phone was missing, and all that was left was the original Siri bubble. I was very disappointed, does anyone know how to get this back? I loved that design feature.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
356
Activity
Jul ’25
Urgent Feature Request: Auto-Hide Home Bar in iOS 18.x Based on iOS 26 Beta Experience
Hello Apple Engineering Team and Fellow Developers, I’ve been using iOS 26 beta from day one and closely following all its improvements. One feature that significantly enhances the user experience is the automatic hiding of the Home Bar (the bottom navigation indicator) after a few seconds of inactivity in menus and apps. This subtle but powerful UI behavior not only increases immersion but also reduces distractions, making navigation smoother and visually cleaner. I strongly urge the Apple team to integrate this feature into the upcoming iOS 18.6 update. Bringing this polished interaction to iOS 18 users would greatly improve usability and keep the interface modern and elegant. Thank you for your continuous efforts in refining iOS. Looking forward to seeing this improvement officially adopted soon! Best regards, [ERFANEX]
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
597
Activity
Jul ’25
UIDesignRequiresCompatibility not available for watchOS
Looking at the UIDesignRequiresCompatibility documentation, watchOS is not listed among the supported platforms. When added to the project, it is also being ignored, resulting in Liquid Glass design. It is possible to opt-out from Liquid Glass design temporarily. Is that just an oversight for Apple Watch please?
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
1.1k
Activity
Oct ’25