Sunday reading: beyond the dollars something's wrong at Apple
Tags: gentle; happy; bubble
… Ive has famously remained out of the spotlight for much of his tenure at Apple …
… after listening to Sir Jonathan Ive speak, seeing him in interview, I struck through the most offensive part of something that I wrote a fortnight ago. The emotional response was heartfelt, but I should not have made the written response so personal, against an individual.
Now:
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Sir Jonathan must bear some responsibility for what's above and below, but please:
let's be fairly gentle. Whatever bubble he (and the team) are in, it can't be nice to sense it close to bursting after eighteen years. Personal insults will not encourage discussion within Apple; will not increase collaboration.
http://designmuseum.org/designers/jonathan-ive:
… I also have a sense of being accountable as we really live, sometimes pretty painfully with the consequences of what we do.
What? No software?
… a
very thorough overview of Ive's interview. …
No mention of software, OS X or iOS. If a thorough overview omits or excludes software, customers should worry.
The same is true for
https://twitter.com/hashtag/dm25ivelive?f=realtime – unless I'm missing something, no mention of software, OS X or iOS.
Apple, without Steve Jobs: insufficient collaboration, insufficient discussion
… "I like to work in a small team," Ive told Sudjic. …
http://designmuseum.org/designers/jonathan-ive:
… By keeping the core team small and investing significantly in tools and process, we can work with a level of collaboration that seems particularly rare. Our physical environment reflects and enables that collaborative approach. The large open studio and massive sound system support a number of communal design areas. …
I, too, worked as part of a similarly-sized team for around eighteen years. (I still work
for that team, as part of a larger group.) For around a decade we enjoyed a £ multi-million building that was purpose-built for our group and one other. Emphases included innovation and collaboration.
I must be blunt:
- the looks of Yosemite stank of contention, stank of resistance within and between teams
– the hallmarks of true collaboration are missing.
Design is not my speciality, but I find all of the following agreeable:
… a bad idea to have a design team that has been so static for almost a generation.
… I don't think it's good for the design process to have the same people working year after year.
Not talking about rapid turnover, just not to be so stagnant over 15 years. A new perspective once in a while can only help.
… hitting the 15 year mark with out a change on the design team is probably about the limit before you need a new perspective.
… wonder if a lack of fresh blood does or when it will eventually hinder them.
Debatable:
I'm pretty sure several members of the team play the role of devil's advocate. …
Such things are not enough.
… very little knowledge about how that 18 person team functions. From my viewpoint, the tangible results we see in record profits, all-time stock price and market cap highs and wildly successful industry-leading products tells me that however that 18 person design team operates, it is working just splendidly. …
I sense neither wild success nor splendid work. Please see below.
Are things really OK? Has Apple lost touch with core values?
They've got a
$660 Billion Market Cap!
You can't really argue with that kind of Market Success.…
Really, we can argue.
… Competitors will follow the recipe.
If the HIG for Yosemite are a recipe, then smiles may be short-lived. Note the
unhappy reaction to a first sighting of a Yosemite-inspired design on Mavericks.
Seems to be working out ok so far.
Since it's obviously been working to wild success for Apple, maybe it's not such a bad idea??
Observe the positioning of iOS 8.x and Yosemite on the graph above. If vaguely similar scores are reproducible without the constraints of vBulletin/MacRumors Forums, then my first impression will not be 'wild success'. If the scores are so excruciatingly low, then
something must be wildly wrong.
It almost sounds as if they believe whatever product comes through this tough process will succeed. However, I still have doubts …
… Not sure this type of design department (without Jobs) is really in touch with the user experience.
I get the feeling that the desire for a new product at Apple outweighed the actual need for a new product. …
Too much change for the sake of change in Yosemite. End result: incoherency, inconsistencies and the OS X Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) have adopted some utter BS in a feeble attempt to gloss over what's wrong.
Well, they did get rid of Scott Forstall.
… user interface design, Ive is an expert on Design Failure.
Interesting. When looking at Yosemite design decisions one has to wonder how he thought that it is working ?
Says a guy on an Internet messageboard. …
Don't rush to dismiss the opinions of your peers. Gems can be found in unexpected places.
He is clearly constrained from saying anything that would give genuine insight into the design processes, so just utters platitudes. Apple doesn't discuss future OR past products! …
A recent publication appears to represent voices within Apple. The author used the word 'process' eleven times and portrayed a lack of discussion. That publication reinforced my perception that Yosemite is not a product of good collaboration.
Reflection
http://designmuseum.org/designers/jonathan-ive:
… It seemed to have lost what had once been a very clear sense of identity and purpose. … By re-establishing the core values … Apple again pursued a direction which was clear and different from any other company. …
What next?
… I'm sure the interaction with anyone actually working with him or socializing with him is pretty different.
Sadly, "failure" is the apparently the only thing that might convince Johnny Five that his UI design sucks. Don't adopt is the best policy. I'm sticking with Mavericks for now.
Non-adoption is understandable, but I suspect that it's not the most effective way of demonstrating to Apple that unacceptably poor software can have a lasting, very negative effect on customer loyalty.
Properly measured Net Promoter® scores should begin to demonstrate the levels of public dissatisfaction with the user interfaces to Apple's most recent operating systems.
Ultimately I'd like to see a (re)establishment of shared values that can be core to Apple; values that can also be appreciated by previously loyal customers.
First, though, we really need to get the company's head out of the sand and encourage some realistic discussion …
