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App Design Guidelines

Shopify's App Design Guidelines show you what great Shopify apps look like and how they're crafted. These guidelines remove the guesswork, so you can build apps that are predictable and easy to use.

Anchor to Why you should use these guidelinesWhy you should use these guidelines

We base our design guidelines on some basic principles, which we communicate through clear directives. Following these directives helps provide a better app experience for merchants.

Built for Shopify

Meeting the Built for Shopify design requirements earns preferential treatment in the Shopify App Store and signals quality to merchants.

Adaptability

Most online store traffic is on mobile, so design for mobile devices first.

A better merchant experience

Match the rest of the Shopify admin and put merchant needs ahead of being different for its own sake.

Accessibility

Build with accessibility best practices so your app works for all merchants and their customers.

Anchor to Apps and the Shopify adminApps and the Shopify admin

Apps are a crucial part of the Shopify ecosystem. They enable merchants to add functionality to their stores without leaving the familiar environment of the Shopify admin.

Using Shopify App Bridge, you can create apps directly inside the Shopify admin. A single frontend that's written with Shopify App Bridge can power point-of-sale, desktop, and mobile experiences. Apps built with Shopify App Bridge are more performant, flexible, and have more features.

By building with Shopify App Bridge and following these App Design Guidelines, you'll create a streamlined experience with the rest of the Shopify admin.

Start building now

Learn about some of the patterns, components, and features that are common in Shopify apps by building an example app.

Anchor to Best practicesBest practices

We believe that the best apps provide merchants with a user experience that matches the appearance and behaviors of the Shopify host surface. This consistency builds merchant trust, because merchant workflows often cross between apps and native pages of the Shopify admin.

For apps embedded into the Shopify admin, we recommend using the components and best practices of Polaris, Shopify's unified system for building app interfaces.

We're constantly innovating and evolving the Shopify admin. By using Polaris, your app can evolve with us.

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