Aqua is the overall appearance and behavior of Mac OS X and defines the standardized appearance of user interface components such as windows, menus, and controls. The quality of icons is also a key visible attribute of Aqua. Designing for Aqua requires significant attention to detail, an appropriate investment of resources, and the right tools in order to ensure you provide the best possible user experience for your customers.

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Interface Builder

Interface Builder, part of the Xcode Tools, is Apple's graphical editor for designing an application's Aqua user interface. Using its graphical editing environment, developers can easily create a well designed UI that adheres to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines.

Interface Design Assistance

Take advantage of the expertise of others to bring your Mac OS X product to life with expressive icons, clean design, and excellent usability.

CanCombineIcons

Create custom icons for use as application folders, picture thumbnails or just desktop ornaments. Easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface.

Iconographer

A fully-featured icon editor. It allows you to both change the icons of items and to edit the icon resources used by various programs.

IconBuilder

A filter for use with Adobe Photoshop™ or Macromedia Fireworks™ that makes creating icons for either the Macintosh or Windows operating systems a snap.

Icon Machine

A native icon editor for Mac OS X icons, capable of editing in all color sizes and depths.

User Experience Topics
Accessibility Help Technologies Design Tools

User Experience Headlines Reference: NSSegmentedCell Class Reference 2009-01-06 Reference: Installer JavaScript Reference 2008-12-16 Sample Code: SpotlightFortunes 2008-06-06 Sample Code: HID Calibrator 2008-05-07 Sample Code: HID Config Save 2008-05-07