Insight into Apple's Design Process

[MacRumors]

As noted by Arstechnica, a Businessweek article reports on an interesting presentation at the SXSW conference by Apple senior engineering manager Michael Lopp. He describes Apple's design approach in coming up with their products:

Pixel Perfect Mockups - While it adds time upfront, it "removes all ambiguity" and the need to correct mistakes later down the line.

10 to 3 to 1 - Designers mock up 10 different unrestricted designs for a given feature. From these, 3 are chosen for further development until a final one is chosen.

Paired Design Meetings - Two meetings. One is for free thinking ("go crazy") without worries about any technical constraints, while the other meeting addresses implementation and practical considerations. Both of these meetings continue throughout product development.




Article Link

[twoodcc]

pretty interesting. i'm not really surprised by any of this either

[hypermark]

This is a great form of triangulation. Counter-balance between:

1. Complete out of box thinking

2. Bounding by business/technical realities

3. Wireframe down to specifics to sanity check

I think that this process is technically common but in practice, very few companies actually make this work.

From my experience, this occurs either because they come at things from a heavy prototyping culture but struggle with the filter down part of the process; OR, come at things from a 'right answer first' mindset which constrains out of box thinking; OR have a culture that has a disconnect between market-facing requirement dynamics (e.g., customer outcomes/aspirations) and product requirement dynamics (e.g., functional attributes).

The key thing in Apple culture is that this is a perpetual process in product development as opposed to tied to a specific stage so it is an ongoing forcing function. As others state, Apple also has a strong, forceful personality that provides the "INSANELY GREAT" or "TOTAL ****" binary vote.

Mark

[mdriftmeyer]

It's called the NeXT Corporate Product Design Methodology.

[MikeTheC]

And here I was, all along under the misapprehension they simply cast lots to determine which component to use, or which feature to implement.

*sigh*

[beeh]

Apple's design "process" ( a word that would make any engineer cringe in fear ), is not much different than most companies I've worked at. I think what sets Apple apart ( for now anyway ) is they may be more "free" as to how to get to an end product. Most companies get hung up with all kinds of process to "improve" development. But all process does is bog down the development cycle, to the point where either a) no good engineers want to work on the product anymore or b) it takes so long to finish that you miss delivery dates and the customer changes their mind...

[SiliconAddict]

What insight do you need? Really. it boils down to make it thinner at all cost. If you have to sacrifice features...do it. If you have to sacrifice reliability (iBook and 12" PowerBooks I'm looking at you.)....do it. If you have to sacrifice storage space.. do it. Just as long as its thinner then the previous version. there you go. Insight into Apple's design motivation.

[echoout]

This is how development works at every company I've ever worked at or freelanced with. Pretty standard.

[Popeye206]

They forgot the part where Steve comes in and says "Wow... I like this one!".

Someone said this is pretty standard... It is to a point... from what I see here Apple seems to take conceptual design much more seriously than others. This seems to lead to more innovation. Most companies I've worked at (and I've been with some of the bigger players in the past) there is too much of engineering keeping the reins on the design process. This builds too many fences and keeps innovation low.

Either way... it seems to work!

[tgildred]

Originally Posted by Popeye206

They forgot the part where Steve comes in and says "Wow... I like this one!".

More likely, "this is absolute crap! You're fired! Start over!"

[David G.]

Originally Posted by tgildred

More likely, "this is absolute crap! You're fired! Start over!"

Nah, it goes down like this, "You've baked a really lovely cake, but then you've used dog **** for frosting." After that, then he starts firing people.

[Antares]

Ha ha...I can imagine Steve walking into one of those meetings and saying "hmm...that one!"

[krye]

Originally Posted by Popeye206

They forgot the part where Steve comes in and says "Wow... I like this one!".

Someone said this is pretty standard... It is to a point... from what I see here Apple seems to take conceptual design much more seriously than others. This seems to lead to more innovation. Most companies I've worked at (and I've been with some of the bigger players in the past) there is too much of engineering keeping the reins on the design process. This builds too many fences and keeps innovation low.

Either way... it seems to work!

My company justs seems to make everything up as they go along. R&D spends half their time just spinning in circles. I guess that's what you get for $160M a year.

[jakealdred]

haha go crazy
go
i wish my school meeting's were lark that
-jake

[johnnyjibbs]

I don't think it is particularly standard. Otherwise, Apple would be lost among the myriad of companies out there creating innovative products

I do think that Apple has got many things right as they keep delivering and everyone tends to follow. The fact that PCs in general a little nicer to the eye, and the various features in the gadget marketplace... many of these things are copies/evolutions from Apple's products.

Although I can imagine Steve walking in, liking something, and then everyone dropping everything to get that thing made no matter anyone else's opionion... I think possibly the MacBook Air and the new folder icons in Leopard fall into this category.

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

I don't think it is particularly standard. Otherwise, Apple would be lost among the myriad of companies out there creating innovative products

The process is very much standard… up to the point you describe below:

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

Although I can imagine Steve walking in, liking something, and then everyone dropping everything to get that thing made no matter anyone else's opionion...

[xelterran]

im stealing this

[Dale_Nx26]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

I don't think it is particularly standard. Otherwise, Apple would be lost among the myriad of companies out there creating innovative products

I do think that Apple has got many things right as they keep delivering and everyone tends to follow. The fact that PCs in general a little nicer to the eye, and the various features in the gadget marketplace... many of these things are copies/evolutions from Apple's products.

Although I can imagine Steve walking in, liking something, and then everyone dropping everything to get that thing made no matter anyone else's opionion... I think possibly the MacBook Air and the new folder icons in Leopard fall into this category.

Umm...do you realize how fanboy-ish you sound?

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by echoout

This is how development works at every company I've ever worked at or freelanced with. Pretty standard.

True… as described in the article there is not much different from bog standard design/development.
The "Paired Design meetings" might be slightly less industry standard.

[tveric]

I saw this article last week, on the Who-gives-a-#&*% channel.

[TheSpecialist]

I indeed find it interesting how Apple designs it products, from concept to manufacturing, the time it takes and the many designs. And the final one Steve chooses hehe.

[Popeye206]

Originally Posted by tveric

I saw this article last week, on the Who-gives-a-#&*% channel.

Hummm..... I would think anyone in software and hardware design would give a #*!& ! Lets face it... Apple has proven they are leading the way in innovative designs. I would think any other company would be foolish not to study and learn how they do it.

[mainstreetmark]

Originally Posted by tveric

I saw this article last week, on the Who-gives-a-#&*% channel.

To answer, I do. It is always an interesting read to see how others are able to successfully bring concepts to production, or perhaps more interestingly, wild ideas into concepts.

So, thank you for sharing your viewing habits and contributing.

[tgildred]

Originally Posted by tveric

I saw this article last week, on the Who-gives-a-#&*% channel.

Man, there's a channel for everything....

[bogg]

I seem to remember AMD does the same for their cpus

Their engineers get to do one CPU design each (or rather, per team), and then they take the best ideas from all of those and does a new batch. And after a while they finally come up with a final design.