If you work in tech, you certainly know how important it is to keep up with all the updates in the field. And who’s better at delivering the Avant-guard technology than Apple? You’ve probably heard of the WWDC, [1] The Worldwide Developers Conference, held by Apple every year to showcase the latest updates in their software and technologies, and this year was no different — here’s all you need to know about WWDC ’22 if you’re a designer.

Revamped aesthetic in iOS 16

Starting from iOS 16, you will have full autonomy over your lock screen design. Not only you can now hide the watch behind the elements of your screensaver picture (something we’ve seen previously), but you can also add multiple lock screens, each with a different picture. Apple has also enabled its users to personalize the Lock Screen through a new editor, customizing it with different colors and even shades (a true designer’s dream!), adding widgets, and even allowing the photo shuffle option.

SF Symbols

Another huge addition in terms of design is the upgrade the SF Symbols received this year. What’s so peculiar about the symbols is that they can transcend many languages, allowing for greater inclusivity. Apple is introducing the SF Symbols, an extensive iconographic library that would integrate with a system font, San Francisco, to create similar experiences on all Apple platforms. Five new categories have been added to the SF Symbols app, such as Camera&Photos, Accessibility, Privacy&Security, Home and Fitness, adding more than 700 new symbols and thus making SF Symbols a library with more than 4000 symbols to choose from. Whatever your stance on Apple is, it’s hard to argue they know how to create a great experience, design-wise. As the company is undertaking the route to become more and more inclusive, they’ve added symbols covering different scripts and right-to-left writing systems.

SF Symbols currently present four rendering models, each one providing control over how colors are applied to symbols. The first one is Monochrome, which is the most basic one. Next, you have Hierarchical, which provides a subtle emphasis while also keeping the single-color aesthetic. Palette, a more complex one, uses two or more contrasting colors without sacrificing the overall aesthetic. Finally, there’s Multicolour, a rendering mode that allows the usage of multiple colors to create a color narrative that will relate to the symbol form. New features include the Variable Colour, used to highlight a sequence of steps that the symbol can represent, and Annotations for custom symbols which, despite not being an entirely new feature, have become much easier and more intuitive.

Designing with charts

Another new feature deserving to be mentioned is designing app experiences with charts. Charts are a great way to represent information visually, and Apple seems to love them with a broad usage across various iOS apps, like Health or Fitness. And since Apple developers prioritize chart usage in apps, they’ve presented a few guidelines for chart creation. Thus, they’re emphasizing the importance of providing your end-users with greater focus. For example, if you want to illustrate sales, earnings, or achievements, a chart providing information regarding change over time would be the best solution. It’s important to remember that the chart should be informative even when read in isolation. Sometimes, complete sentences in the description would be your best solution when working with charts that don’t provide enough straightforwardness, and in other cases, you may want to opt for an interactive chart. All in all, Apple reminds us that our charts should be clear, well-organized, and adaptable, so keep that in mind if you’re developing apps for iOS. During WWDC they reinforced the necessity to use familiar chart forms to ease the user’s comprehension, as well as the intentional use of differences between the charts to facilitate their interpretation.

WatchOS 9

Obviously, all Apple products have seen some great upgrades in different areas, but since we’re talking about design, I couldn’t avoid mentioning some news regarding WatchOS 9. In particular, Apple seems to have finally solved the biggest disappointment many users have been experiencing with the Apple Watch: notifications have turned into banners instead of full-screen notifications. This small step makes a huge difference, as it makes the overall design looks sleeker, allowing greater flexibility to the users. Some cool updates aren’t pertinent to design only, but are still worth mentioning, like the possibility to track chronic diseases’ symptoms and share your medical history with your doctor, tracking your medication intake and receiving notifications about them, as well as being alerted when some potential reactions between the medications could occur.

Stage Manager

Stage Manager is an incredibly useful feature that was added to macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16. Stage Manager allows you to organize all of your open applications to the left side of the screen, so you don’t feel overwhelmed with the number of open windows on your laptop or iPad. With Stage Manager you can navigate between your workspaces or apps in a visual way, even grouping them (you can create a group of work-related windows, for example). Instead of going through tons of open windows, you will have them all lined up in a way that is both pleasant for your eyes and has the potential to optimize your work. Stage Manager makes the organization easy as you can alternate not only between apps but even entire app setups (think splitting Safari windows between different groups).

ARKit 6

After the success of previous AR Kits, Apple has presented a brand-new ARKit 6 during WWDC 2022. Their focus has been on fixing the common complaints from the previous versions based on the user feedback, like introducing high-resolution video capturing. Now developers will have the opportunity to make videos in 4K at 30 frames per second when using ARKit 6. The 4K mode will be available for iPhone 11 and up as well as on any iPad Pro with an M1 chip. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind when using ARKit 6, especially in 4K mode. Apple recommends avoiding holding on to an ARFrame for too long so you allow the system to free up some memory, and always check for console warnings so you don’t retain too many images. All in all, consider if 4K video is suitable for your app: unless it’s a video/filmmaking or virtual production app, it will take up additional system memory, and might not be your best bet.

Takeaway

Apple has no doubt presented some great updates this year — and for many of those updates, users have been waiting for ages. But the company never disappoints, offering cutting-edge technology solutions, paired with better, ever-so-efficient design and traditionally Apple’s, minimalist aesthetic. There’s always room for more, but this has become Apple’s trademark over the years: they’re giving their users just as many new features as to leave them wanting for more and waiting for the next upgrades. Well, we can’t wait for the next WWDC to happen to see what’s next Apple has in store, following the company’s creative journey to make innovation an everyday commodity.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/wwdc22/