Diploma in Apple Development 🍎👩🏻‍💻: Spatial 1: Lecture 1: Introduction to the Spatial 1 unit.
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Hi!
First, don't forget to confirm your attendance using the Seats Mobile app!
Second, I'm going to start every lecture with a meditation from the fantastic Sitting Still Like a Frog book, all read by Myla Kabat-Zinn. If you don't want to participate that's completely fine.

What are we going to be doing in Spatial 1? We are going to be using Apple's resources (particularly around SwiftUI) to make prototype for a whole Vision Pro app, in teams. The brief is all around care. You need to make a caring app. But caring for who? How? Could it be around sharing important information? Which communities do you already care about or for? We'll talk about this more later.

In the second half of the year we'll move onto the Spatial Two unit. You'll make a playful app on your own - perhaps this could be around making joyful interaction? You'll be researching the Swift you need with me along the way. Just like making a real app in the real world.

BTW, the idea of the playful and caring approach comes from this amazing presentation from David Graeber (RIP).

Throughout, we are going to be using the App Design Workbook - use this to develop your group and solo apps. This should form the skeleton of the structure of your final presentations for both units. Make sure to download it today! Let's take a moment to look at it together.

Co-operation is key, the aim is to work in a team, much like you would in an app making studio.

Let's go through the Block 1 lectures in Spatial 1. The Spatial 1 unit is split into (roughly) three parts:
  1. Design
  2. Reality Composer Pro (Apple's app for making spatial content)
  3. Learning about SwiftUI (Apple's latest Application Programming Interface (API) for making apps), as well as RealityKit (Apple's API for working with 3D or Spatial content).
Next, let's take a look at the Apple Developer Design homepage, the Design Pathway and the VisionOS pathway. Let's take a particular look at the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) and particularly the the HIG section on Designing for VisionOS. Next, let's take a look at Apple's design resources - particularly SF Symbols!
Let's move on with a video from Apple's World Wide Developer Conference 2018:
"The Qualities of Great Design" (55 mins)
"Great Design isn't magic, it is crafted with care by real people. Explore the characteristics of great design through the voices of designers from Apple and our developer community. Learn how they take inspiration from everyday life, conceive and refine ideas, and push themselves to design apps and games that can stand the test of time."
FYI World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) is usually shortened by Apple presenters and others to dubdubs.

Some real world reference and inspiration:

For the rest of this first lecture, let's talk about the Spatial 1 brief. But first, let's put you into groups. Based on previous years, I think groups of three are best. Let's add the groups to the People on this course page. How many of you have filled them out?
The brief is all around care. You need to make a caring app. But caring for who? How? Could it be around sharing important information? Which communities do you already care about or for? Why is it important to share this information spatially?
To be clear, I'm not expecting you to make a complete app - that's for the second half of the year, launching on Apple's app testing platform: TestFlight. The aim is to work like Apple works, building the prototype of an app in a group, with as much physical and code experiments as possible - not presentations, rather demonstrations and then discussion about the actual thing, not "the vision".
As mentioned already, you are going to build the prototypes for your app in paper (more about this next week) and in code using SwiftUI, RealityKit and Reality Composer Pro and other tools. Lets explore that tools link together.
Next, I'd like to introduce you to an artist and take you through their recent syllabus on VR/AR fundamentals.
I first became aware of Michael Naimark's work through his essay First Word Art / Last Word Art. I'd really recommend going through his collected projects when you have a moment.
Michael recently taught a course on "VR/AR fundamentals" at NYU Shanghai. As he mentions in the introduction: "They’re meant to be fast, brief, holistic, and accessible to non-engineers". Let's spend some time quickly reviewing them - please take time to do this for yourself properly before the next lecture!
Dimitri Diakopoulos works in "R&D for Emerging Technology" at Apple. He's put together a great "scholarly study guide for learning the basics of av/vr/mr spatial computing" - it's a brilliant collection of research papers on many aspects of spatial computing.
Let's move on with a video from Apple's WWDC 2025:
"Design Foundations from idea to Interface" (20 mins)
"Great apps feel clear, intuitive, and effortless to use. In this session, you'll discover how app design can elevate functionality, communicate purpose, guide people through your content, and use components thoughtfully to keep the experience simple without losing impact. This session is for designers and developers of all skill levels — as well as anyone curious about design."
Next time, I expect you to arrive in your groups with at least one and a maximum of three page 9's from the App Design Workbook. You'll have a minute to present each question or challenge next week. Let's take a look at this slide together before we finish for today with some time with our Vision Pro headsets.
In addition, please review all of the content from today's lecture.
N.B. this will be the "rhythm" of Spatial 1 - a group presentation on your group's progress every two weeks. You should make your presentations in Keynote - the format of your final submission. Mark those dates in your diaries now!
Thanks!
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