Reveal for macOS
Rivalled by Xcode, Reveal is a pro desktop tool helps developers visualise the complex layers within an iOS app, inspect its properties, and debug a connected app in real-time. (A little like “inspect element” on the web, but for native apps on your iPhone).
type
Interface Design
company
Itty Bitty Apps
Shipped
2021
Team
Sean Woodhouse, Tony Arnold, Oliver Jones, Chris Kolbu
The Outline
An iOS app is composed of layers upon layers of subviews in a tree called the View Hierarchy.
Reveal's Outline sidebar was designed to help developers scan complex hierarchies at a glance with the right amount of information density.
UIApplication
UIScreen
UIWindowScene
UIWindow
UICollectionView
UICollectionViewCell
The Toolbar
Adapting macOS design guidelines, Reveal's toolbar displays a set of controls for the window as a whole. It also shows the status of the connected iOS app.
The Canvas
Reveal's most useful, and arguably, iconic feature is the 3D canvas. Minimal interface controls adorn a snapshot of the connected iOS app, allowing to browse complex layers from a different perspective.
The Inspector
Designing the inspector was challenging, because every type of view in UIKit had a different set of properties to inspect.
As a result, a system of modular controls were designed instead, which could be programatically generated, allowing support for many different kinds of layers to inspect.
The Icons
An icon was needed to represent every type of view in UIKit that could be inspected within Reveal. Each icon had to be semantic, hierarchical, and recognisable at a glance.
The result is a harmonious library of icons, designed individually, that work across different size and colour contexts, and yet still feels right at home on the Mac.
