iPhone custom UITableViewCell accessory graphic, a HIG violation?

Question

I want to introduce a custom pencil accessory image in a tabel cell and in the standard accessory righthand UITableViewCell position. The pencil image will be used to indicate that the text in the table cell can be edited via a popup modal full screen view.

Will Apple penalize this innovation during the app review process?

My justification is that the standard disclosure indicators do not convey the right meaning. According to the Apple HIG doc the ">" disclosure should present another more detailed list view and the the blue "+" disclosure button should reveal extra details about the selected table row.

I feel that opening a text edit view falls between the ">" and "+" usage, hence my pencil image idea.

Edit: Just to complete the picture, the table view has two fat rows. The upper row poses a multiline question and the lower row shows a text answer.

Answer 1

Hey camelCase,

I don't think that Apple would penalize you for creating a custom button/icon. This is not something to concern. The problem here is to make you user understand what is the function of you custom icon, since they are used with the standard iPhone UI.

I my opinion for the functionality that you want to put on your icon, it would be better if you use the custom UI for editing table cell, that is presented on this image that I could find Googling (http://adeem.me/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/UITableView/AddDeleteReorderUITableView/Picture%202.png).

So, people are used to edit the content of table cells by using the edit button and after pick the current cell...than you can show the modal view, so the user can edit the content.

To have a better picture, compare your table cell with, for example, the Clock app.

Try to avoid custom controls as much as you can. if something exists on the standard UI, go for it it is easy for people to look and understand.

Imagine that in your browser the load icon, instead of this circular arrow, it was changed by "L" in the latest update, would be something tricky to us to understand a non-standard symbol.

Think about it and chose the most appropriated approach for your purpose.

Cheers,
VFN