14 DAY TRIAL // With the Mac App Store set to debut in a couple of months, Apple has begun to outline some of the basics about properly coding a program so that it performs like a native Mac application.
The folks down in Cupertino undoubtedly have high hopes for their forthcoming Mac App Store. In November, Apple unveiled plans to bring the iOS App Store experience to Mac OS X, “making discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever.”
As such, a Mac App Store will have to behave in exactly the same manner as the current iOS-centric venue, which means that the same development rules will apply.
One of these is “Apple's interface design principles.”
In a note published on the News and Announcements section of Apple’s Developer website, the Mac maker outlines a particular guideline for those planning to submit apps for approval in the upcoming Mac App Store.
Titled “Considerations for Creating Custom Controls for your Mac App,” the tip goes as follows:
"The Mac OS X Aqua user interface provides users with a consistent visual and behavioral experience across applications and the operating system, and provides an aesthetically refined use of color, transparency, and animation.
If your application requires an element or behavior that doesn't already exist, you can create your own custom controls, provided that your element or behavior supports Apple's interface design principles. Review the Extending the Interface section of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines for details."
Read from a different perspective, this actually means that Apple will probably not accept an app that doesn’t look and feel like a Macintosh-native program.
Apple also has “File System Usage Requirements for Mac Apps.”
The company behind the Snow Leopard operating system says that “Mac apps submitted to the App Store must write files in the appropriate location,” in what should set the grounds for “a more consistent user experience,” Apple explains.
The company goes to elaborate, saying, “This avoids users being confused when applications store data in unexpected areas of the file system (e.g., storing databases in the user's Documents folder or storing files in the user's Library folder that are not recognizably associated with your application).”
To make sure developers don’t mess up on this particular segment of the coding process, Apple hands them a link to the Mac OS X Reference Library where the company talks about “human interface design.”
There, developers are also instructed to use “metaphors” when working up a list of key features for their apps, as well as to “reflect the user’s mental model.”