> 3. Why does iOS not even have radio buttons? iOS has tables. A table is a single column of complex cells that usually fills the screen. Cells can be divided

> 3. Why does iOS not even have radio buttons? iOS has tables. A table is a single column of complex cells that usually fills the screen. Cells can be divided into sections or not divided. The Settings app is almost entirely tables; so is a Twitter app, so was the iPod. Table cells can have a checkmark accessory—just a glyph, not surrounded by any shape—that is either exclusive to one among many rows or not exclusive. Originally, a single or multiple selection field would push another screen with a table whose cells would provide the behavior you want. Tapping anywhere in a cell selects it, displays the checkmark, and if desired removes it from other cells. The user pops the screen when done. This is all the same as what you find in the macOS Menu Bar—items may be grouped between dividers, some items may disclose another column of options, some may have a persistent selection state, the selection states of nearby items may be mutual or individual. macOS menus also never had checkboxes or radio buttons but can have either kind of selection indicated by a checkmark. Table screens are menus. iOS also decorates arbitrary objects like photos with a checkmark in similar situations—put the Photos app into selection mode for example. There is no checkbox control to aim for. You hit the entire object and it performs the appropriate selection behavior, which results in a checkmark being displayed or hidden. I believe the reason iOS has an object decoration instead of either checkboxes or radio buttons is that fingers are blunt and users enjoy big tap targets. Trying to poke at a small circle or box to the left of some accompanying text kinda sucks. The whole of the text could be an active touch area but a user wouldn't know that from looking at it. Have a look at switches for comparison—they're big, they can be tapped or dragged, they play haptics. But the text beside them does not activate them because it doesn't look like a thing you can handle, not like the switch itself, not like the checkmark-gaining photo or a mail message table cell. I think the reason this question is still asked is that the HIG doesn't address expectations about a missing control. To my knowledge Apple has never in this era explained their design reasoning, maybe because intuitive UI has historically been their competitive advantage. So we identify patterns largely from repeated anecdotal use and make educated guesses about the reasoning. In the end it means that long-time users of iPhone are at times more aware of UI norms than career designers who aren't particularly iPhone specialists. And sometimes, despite knowing better, we design and build custom radio buttons because a stakeholder couldn't be convinced.