Ipados Design Guidelines

If you're building for iPad and want to avoid the classic mistake of just scaling up your iPhone app, this gives Claude the Apple HIG specifics it needs. It covers the critical stuff like adaptive size classes, Split View and Stage Manager support, sidebar navigation patterns, and pointer interactions. The rules are opinionated about things like never showing empty detail views and always supporting both orientations. Most useful when you're implementing NavigationSplitView layouts or debugging why your app feels wrong at different multitasking sizes. It won't teach you SwiftUI from scratch, but it will keep Claude from suggesting iPhone patterns on a 13-inch canvas.

skills.sh installs: 1.3K
GitHub stars: 639
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add ehmo/platform-design-skills --skill ipados-design-guidelines --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

iPadOS Design Guidelines

Comprehensive rules for building iPad-native apps following Apple's Human Interface Guidelines. iPad is not a big iPhone -- it demands adaptive layouts, multitasking support, pointer interactions, keyboard shortcuts, and inter-app drag and drop. These rules extend iOS patterns for the larger, more capable canvas.

1. Responsive Layout (CRITICAL)

1.1 Use Adaptive Size Classes

iPad presents two horizontal size classes: regular (full screen, large splits) and compact (Slide Over, narrow splits). Design for both. Never hardcode dimensions.

struct AdaptiveView: View {
    @Environment(\.horizontalSizeClass) var sizeClass

    var body: some View {
        if sizeClass == .regular {
            TwoColumnLayout()
        } else {
            StackedLayout()
        }
    }
}

1.2 Don't Scale Up iPhone UI

iPad layouts must be purpose-built. Stretching an iPhone layout across a 13" display wastes space and feels wrong. Use multi-column layouts, master-detail patterns, and increased information density in regular width.