Dock Animation. Sometimes animating icons in the dock can be useful in communicating the status of the system or application.

Clicking an application in the dock should always bring forward an active window. If the user clicks on an open app's icon in the Dock, the application is active and all unminimized windows come along with it. I have found a few problems with windows behaving independently of their application.

Adhere to System Appearance. Does your application use all the sweetly colored buttons, delightfully shaded windows, and all the other "bells and whistles?"

For my Paint application, I created a series of icons to simulate a rendering algorithm. While the application is performing this CPU-intensive task, you can always see the status of the document by the icon changing in the Dock.

Dock Animation. Sometimes animating icons in the dock can be useful in communicating the status of the system or application.

Adhere to File Locations. Make sure that when your users save documents, your application knows where to put them and also gives users flexibility.

You Must Promise. To call your mother, to help old ladies cross the road, and to turn your cell phone off at the movies.

To help you become a good Aqua citizen, Apple has created a few guidelines. I've put together a brief overview of them, and we'll be tackling many of them in the months to come.

User Assistance. This is helping the user with the proper "next step" when performing a task. Less guesswork for the user on what to do next makes for a better experience.

Adhere to File Locations. Make sure that when your users save documents, your application knows where to put them and also gives users flexibility.