Watchos Design Guidelines

This is Apple's HIG for Watch distilled into actionable rules you can reference while building watchOS apps. It covers the critical stuff: glanceable design principles (2-second comprehension targets), Digital Crown integration with haptic feedback, shallow navigation patterns, and complication design with WidgetKit timeline providers. Each section includes specific rules with IDs like W-GL-01, code examples showing correct and incorrect implementations, and screen dimension tables for current Watch models. Useful when you're designing complications, workout features, or any wrist-based UI where you need to remember that people interact in 5-second bursts, not sustained sessions. The anti-patterns section alone will save you from common mistakes like ignoring the Crown or building deep navigation hierarchies.

skills.sh installs: 1.2K
GitHub stars: 639
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

watchOS Design Guidelines

Apple Watch is a personal, glanceable device worn on the wrist. Interactions are measured in seconds, not minutes. Every design decision must prioritize speed of comprehension and brevity of interaction.