v1.0.0 - Apple HIG Archive (1980-2014)

Apple Human Interface Guidelines Archive (1980-2014)

First Release

This is the initial release of the complete Apple Human Interface Guidelines historical archive, spanning 34 years from Lisa to iOS 8.

What's Included

• 35 documents from 1980-2014
• 11,655 markdown files with full text and images
• 4,507 semantic chunks optimized for RAG pipelines
• ~45MB of indexed, LLM-ready content

Document Coverage

Pre-Mac Era (1980-1984)

• Lisa UI Standards (1980, 1983)
• Apple IIe Design Guidelines (1982)
• Apple II Human Interface Guidelines (1985)

Classic Macintosh (1985-1992)

• Human Interface Guidelines Beta & Final (1986)
• Apple Desktop Interface (1987)
• Macintosh HIG (1992, 1995)

NeXT & Newton (1993-1996)

• NeXTSTEP Guidelines (1993)
• Newton 2.0 Guidelines (1996)
• Mac OS 8 WWDC & HIG (1996-1997)

Aqua Era (2000-2009)

• Adopting Aqua Interface (2000)
• Aqua HIG (2001, 2002)
• Multiple Apple HIG updates (2004-2009)

iOS Era (2008-2014)

• iPhone HIG (2008, 2010)
• iOS HIG (2011, 2014)
• iPhone Web App Guidelines

Modern OS X (2012-2014)

• OS X HIG (2012, 2013, 2014)

Features

✅ llms.txt compliant for LLM discoverability
✅ RAG-ready with pre-chunked content
✅ GitHub-optimized with topics and metadata
✅ Searchable across all markdown files
✅ Historical images preserved and embedded
✅ Interactive timeline with context

Use Cases

• LLM Training: High-quality UI/UX documentation
• RAG Pipelines: Pre-chunked, semantic content
• Design Research: Historical HCI patterns
• Education: Learn from 34 years of refinement
• Development: Period-accurate retro software

Access Methods

For LLMs:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johnzfitch/human-interface-markdown/master/llms.txt

For RAG:
Clone and use llmx/ directory with manifests

For Humans:
Browse TIMELINE.md or docs/

Technical Details

• Format: GitHub-flavored Markdown
• Integrity: SHA256 checksums
• Structure: Era-based organization
• Optimization: Token-efficient formatting

Links

• Repository
• llms.txt
• Timeline
• Full Content

---

Preserved by: johnzfitch
Format Version: 1.0
Release Date: 2026-01-18