iOS Human Interface Guidelines: Picker Control on iPad without Popover

Question

I am planning to use a couple of picker controls and segmented controls (as a kind of control panel) embedded in a container view controller to control the contents of a second child view controller. However, according to Apple iOS Human Interface Guidelines, on an iPad a picker may not be presented in the main screen and must be presented in a popover:

On iPad, present a picker only within a popover. A picker is not suitable for the main screen.

How strict is this rule?

Would it be ok in my case to have the picker on the main screen in order to provide the required interactivity?

Answer 1

Clearly the answer to your question really depends on Apple, not on anything we developers might think or say. Your screen design looks very reasonable to me, but the issue is really whether Apple will approve it.

It might be better to ask if anyone has had an app approved with pickers outside of popovers.

Alternatively, you could ask if anyone has had an app rejected for using Pickers outside popovers.

Apple rules and common sense have a high degree of overlap, but where they differ the only thing that matters is Apple. Either ask them, or just submit your app for approval and see.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Here is my experience regarding picker. I had an app (say appAA) approved, which use picker view in a modal view, three pickers, one followed by another. I had another app (say appBB) which basically copies the modal view of appAA. This app was rejected because of a functional problem which I could not reproduce. I debuted in Resolution Center, then the reviewer rejected again with additional reason, saying the pickers are not presented in popover! I guess I have to put the pickers into the popover if I want appBB to be approved since the review mentioned so.

Answer 3

I think the answer is simply How ugly does it make the UI look?

The left/right edges of the picker were originally intended to be flush with the edge of the iPhone screen (and it was hardcoded to be 320px wide, which failed to work sensibly in landscape mode). On the iPad, the UIPopover lets it be flush with the frame. The obvious way to achieve this effect without using a UIPopover is to draw your own frame, instead of leaving a flat grey background between the pickers.

However, the easiest (and better looking, IMO) solution is to take the picker background (as a 1px-wide image) and use a UIImageView to stretch it behind all the pickers so they look like part of a continuous bar. Remember to check both retina and non-retina versions.