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
Install
$ npx -y skills add ehmo/platform-design-skills --skill watchos-design-guidelines --agent claude-codeInstalls 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.
1. Glanceable Design (CRITICAL)
The defining constraint of watchOS. If a user cannot extract the key information within 2 seconds of raising their wrist, the design has failed.
Rules
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- Repository
- github.com/ehmo/platform-design-skills
- Category
- Design & UI/UX
- First seen
- Jun 3, 2026
