apple-design

Name: apple-design
Author: hanamizuki

104stars8forks

How to install apple-design?

hanamizuki/solopreneur/apple-design

$npx -y skills add hanamizuki/solopreneur --skill apple-design

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Apple's approach to interface design and fluid, physical motion, translated for the web. Use when building or reviewing gesture-driven UI, spring animations, drag/swipe/sheet interactions, momentum and interruptible transitions, translucent materials and depth, typography (optica

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Apple Design
2
3	How Apple builds interfaces that stop feeling like a computer and start feeling like an extension of you. This knowledge comes from Apple's WWDC design talks — chiefly Designing Fluid Interfaces (WWDC 2018) — distilled and translated into the web platform (CSS, Pointer Events, `requestAnimationFrame`, spring libraries like Motion/Framer Motion).
4
5	The through-line: an interface feels alive when motion starts from the current on-screen value, inherits the user's velocity, projects momentum forward, and can be grabbed and reversed at any instant. Springs are the tool that makes all of this natural, because they are inherently interruptible and velocity-aware.
6
7	## The Core Idea
8
9	> "When we align the interface to the way we think and move, something magical happens — it stops feeling like a computer and starts feeling like a seamless extension of us."
10
11	An interface is fluid when it behaves like the physical world: things respond instantly, move continuously, carry momentum, resist at boundaries, and can be redirected mid-motion. Everything below is a way to get closer to that.
12
13	Apple frames design as serving four human needs: safety/predictability, understanding, achievement, and joy. Every rule here serves one of them.
14
15	## 1. Response — kill latency
16
17	The moment lag appears, the feeling of directness "falls off a cliff." Response is the foundation everything else is built on.
18
19	- Respond on pointer-down, not on release. Highlight a button the instant it's pressed. Waiting for `click`/touch-up to show feedback feels dead.
20	- Be vigilant about every latency. Audit debounces, artificial timers, transition waits, and the ~300ms tap delay. Anything on the input path that isn't essential is a regression.
21	- *Feedback must be continuous during* the interaction, not just at the end.** For a drag, slider, or drawer, update the UI 1:1 with the pointer the whole way through — never animate only when the gesture completes.
22
23	```css
24	/* Feedback lives on the press, and it's instant */
25	.button:active {
26	transform: scale(0.97);
27	transition: transform 100ms ease-out;
28	}
29	```
30
31	## 2. Direct manipulation — 1:1 tracking
32
33	> "Touch and content should move together."
34
35	When the user drags something, it must stay glued to the finger — and respect the offset from where they grabbed it. Snapping to the element's center on grab breaks the illusion immediately.
36
37	- Use Pointer Events with `setPointerCapture` so tracking continues even when the pointer leaves the element's bounds.
38	- Track a short velocity/position history (last few `pointermove` events), not just the current point — you'll need velocity at release.
39
40	```js
41	el.addEventListener('pointerdown', (e) => {
42	el.setPointerCapture(e.pointerId);
43	const grabOffset = e.clientY - el.getBoundingClientRect().top; // respect where they grabbed
44	// ...track position + timestamp history for velocity
45	});
46	```
47
48	## 3. Interruptibility — the single most important principle
49
50	> "The thought and the gesture happen in parallel."
51
52	Every animation must be interruptible and redirectable at any moment. A user must be able to grab a moving element mid-flight and reverse it without waiting for the animation to finish. A closing modal the user grabs again should follow the finger — not finish closing first, then reopen.
53
54	- Never lock out input during a transition.
55	- *Always animate from the presentation* (current) value, never the target value.** On interrupt, read the element's live on-screen transform and start the new animation from there. Starting from the logical/target value causes a visible jump.
56	- Avoid CSS transitions and `@keyframes` for anything gesture-driven — they can't be smoothly grabbed and reversed mid-flight. Springs animate from the current value by default, which is exactly what interruption needs.
57	- When a gesture reverses, blend velocity — don't hard-cut it. Replacing one animation with another at a reversal creates a velocity discontinuity, a "brick wall." Spring libraries that carry velocity through a re-target avoid it. (This is what iOS's additive animations do natively; on the web, choose a spring library that re-targets from the current velocity.)
58	- Decompose 2D motion into independent X and Y springs. A single spring on a 2D distance desyncs when X and Y have different velocities.
59
60	## 4. Behavior over animation — use springs
61
62	> "Think of animation as a conversation between you and the object, not something prescribed by the interface."
63
64	A pre-scripted, fixed-durati

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type

apple-design

104stars8forks

View on GitHub

How to install apple-design?

hanamizuki/solopreneur/apple-design

$npx -y skills add hanamizuki/solopreneur --skill apple-design

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Apple Design
2
3	How Apple builds interfaces that stop feeling like a computer and start feeling like an extension of you. This knowledge comes from Apple's WWDC design talks — chiefly Designing Fluid Interfaces (WWDC 2018) — distilled and translated into the web platform (CSS, Pointer Events, `requestAnimationFrame`, spring libraries like Motion/Framer Motion).
4
5	The through-line: an interface feels alive when motion starts from the current on-screen value, inherits the user's velocity, projects momentum forward, and can be grabbed and reversed at any instant. Springs are the tool that makes all of this natural, because they are inherently interruptible and velocity-aware.
6
7	## The Core Idea
8
9	> "When we align the interface to the way we think and move, something magical happens — it stops feeling like a computer and starts feeling like a seamless extension of us."
10
11	An interface is fluid when it behaves like the physical world: things respond instantly, move continuously, carry momentum, resist at boundaries, and can be redirected mid-motion. Everything below is a way to get closer to that.
12
13	Apple frames design as serving four human needs: safety/predictability, understanding, achievement, and joy. Every rule here serves one of them.
14
15	## 1. Response — kill latency
16
17	The moment lag appears, the feeling of directness "falls off a cliff." Response is the foundation everything else is built on.
18
19	- Respond on pointer-down, not on release. Highlight a button the instant it's pressed. Waiting for `click`/touch-up to show feedback feels dead.
20	- Be vigilant about every latency. Audit debounces, artificial timers, transition waits, and the ~300ms tap delay. Anything on the input path that isn't essential is a regression.
21	- *Feedback must be continuous during* the interaction, not just at the end.** For a drag, slider, or drawer, update the UI 1:1 with the pointer the whole way through — never animate only when the gesture completes.
22
23	```css
24	/* Feedback lives on the press, and it's instant */
25	.button:active {
26	transform: scale(0.97);
27	transition: transform 100ms ease-out;
28	}
29	```
30
31	## 2. Direct manipulation — 1:1 tracking
32
33	> "Touch and content should move together."
34
35	When the user drags something, it must stay glued to the finger — and respect the offset from where they grabbed it. Snapping to the element's center on grab breaks the illusion immediately.
36
37	- Use Pointer Events with `setPointerCapture` so tracking continues even when the pointer leaves the element's bounds.
38	- Track a short velocity/position history (last few `pointermove` events), not just the current point — you'll need velocity at release.
39
40	```js
41	el.addEventListener('pointerdown', (e) => {
42	el.setPointerCapture(e.pointerId);
43	const grabOffset = e.clientY - el.getBoundingClientRect().top; // respect where they grabbed
44	// ...track position + timestamp history for velocity
45	});
46	```
47
48	## 3. Interruptibility — the single most important principle
49
50	> "The thought and the gesture happen in parallel."
51
52	Every animation must be interruptible and redirectable at any moment. A user must be able to grab a moving element mid-flight and reverse it without waiting for the animation to finish. A closing modal the user grabs again should follow the finger — not finish closing first, then reopen.
53
54	- Never lock out input during a transition.
55	- *Always animate from the presentation* (current) value, never the target value.** On interrupt, read the element's live on-screen transform and start the new animation from there. Starting from the logical/target value causes a visible jump.
56	- Avoid CSS transitions and `@keyframes` for anything gesture-driven — they can't be smoothly grabbed and reversed mid-flight. Springs animate from the current value by default, which is exactly what interruption needs.
57	- When a gesture reverses, blend velocity — don't hard-cut it. Replacing one animation with another at a reversal creates a velocity discontinuity, a "brick wall." Spring libraries that carry velocity through a re-target avoid it. (This is what iOS's additive animations do natively; on the web, choose a spring library that re-targets from the current velocity.)
58	- Decompose 2D motion into independent X and Y springs. A single spring on a 2D distance desyncs when X and Y have different velocities.
59
60	## 4. Behavior over animation — use springs
61
62	> "Think of animation as a conversation between you and the object, not something prescribed by the interface."
63
64	A pre-scripted, fixed-durati

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type