Small world. I followed a handful of those Google search results, one led me to Designing Design Research 2 … I have fond memories of Sussex Mac User Group meetings, with Ranulph often there.
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Cambridge Awards Jony Ive With Honorary Degree in Science for Design Work at Apple
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Let all seven have their cakes
I find https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="science+of+design"+site:ac.uk thought-provoking.
The fact that people talk about a "science of X" doesn't imply that X is a scientific field, just that the scientific approach can and might be used to investigate topics of interest to X.
Or, more likely, that some journo needed a good title.
Counterexamples:
https://www.google.com/search?q="science+of+cooking"
https://www.google.com/search?q="science+of+painting"
https://www.google.com/search?q="science+of+cycling"
https://www.google.com/search?q="science+of+soccer"
https://www.google.com/search?q="science+of+weed"
https://www.google.com/search?q="christian+science"
I'm sorry, but design is not a science, designers don't generally practice the scientific method, which is not covered in any class they teach in design school, nor is any other fundamental scientific topic.
That I know of, there are no theorems, proofs and counterexamples in design.
I don't think this is debatable.
And thank your deities for that, because you don't need to know Bayes' theorem or be able to prove by induction the solution to a recurrence relation to design a nice computer case.
Even so, at best this might qualify as engineering, but really Ive is "just" a designer. A good designer but getting a prestigious Doctor of Science degree is an absolute cop out to real scientists, most of whom get nothing of the credit, recognition or money that Ive has. Ive was also lucky to find himself in a company and an industry at a time when it was crying out for a revolution.
Does anyone really take honorary degrees seriously anyway? They're only about universities trying to further their brand image by associating themselves with successful people. Nothing more. There are people who work their whole lives curing diseases that should be awarded such honours.
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Ive is so overrated. His best work was back when he had Jobs to tell him when his designs sucked. Jobs was a master of aesthetics.
Oh, and I think Ive needs to stop obsessing about the thinness of his designs and worry about his own thinness. And keep him away from GUI design!
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Oh yes I can. The iMac is certainly pretty to look at, but once you begin to use it and need to insert an SD card it's not so beautiful, is it? And if you ever get the notion to swap out that HDD for an aftermarket SSD on your $1500 computer, well, that iMac just got downright ugly.
The MacBook? Won't be long until that single USB port turns the whole computer ugly. That extra USB hub you must carry around entirely negates the thinness of the MacBook.
The Mac Pro? It would be a cute Mac Mini, but as a workstation it's a joke. Proprietary, non-upgradable GPUs during a time when apps are finally offloading computing to the GPU and GPU tech is moving fast as ever? Ugly. Lack of internal PCIe ports? Ugly. Being forced to give you're Mac Pro a reach around just to plug in a USB peripheral? Butt ugly.
Oh, and I think Ive needs to stop obsessing about the thinness of his designs and worry about his own thinness. And keep him away from GUI design!
[doublepost=1466175324][/doublepost]
Oh yes I can. The iMac is certainly pretty to look at, but once you begin to use it and need to insert an SD card it's not so beautiful, is it? And if you ever get the notion to swap out that HDD for an aftermarket SSD on your $1500 computer, well, that iMac just got downright ugly.
The MacBook? Won't be long until that single USB port turns the whole computer ugly. That extra USB hub you must carry around entirely negates the thinness of the MacBook.
The Mac Pro? It would be a cute Mac Mini, but as a workstation it's a joke. Proprietary, non-upgradable GPUs during a time when apps are finally offloading computing to the GPU and GPU tech is moving fast as ever? Ugly. Lack of internal PCIe ports? Ugly. Being forced to give you're Mac Pro a reach around just to plug in a USB peripheral? Butt ugly.
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This nonsense makes a complete mockery of the honoury degree title, really it's all about ego massage, back patting, handshakes and lots of cash.
Just how much of the design process is his actual intellectual input is questionable, it's certainly not enough for this stupidity. Did he invent the carbon nanotube ? I think not!!.
When ever was Apple a one man design effort. No other designers credited or involved in the process !!! Of course maybe this is why design refresh takes so long!
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I think you're kidding yourself if you think jobs was telling Ive his designs sucked.
yes, ultimately s.jobs was Ive's boss as he was CEO of the company. but overlord of design? I don't think so.. if there were ever any serious discrepancy between Ive and Jobs or, certainly if Jobs told Ive his designs sucked, Jony Ive would of quit working at apple.. immediately.
jobs hired Ive because Ive is able to do what steve jobs couldn't.
It's common knowledge that Jobs spent a LOT of time down in Ive's studio, and Ive was the man he usually ate lunch with. Jobs liked Ive because he was a good collaborator and could put Jobs's ideas into form.
All you need to do is look at the fast pace of Apple design changes when Jobs was alive compared to now. Look at 1999-2004 and then look at 2011-2016. Night and day. iPhone design in particular has slipped since Jobs's death. GUI design is a train wreck since Jony took over.
what about 2005-2010?
these are your opinions.. and they're fine etc.. i'm not knocking you for not liking the designs.
but i think you're making the mistake of correlating your personal tastes and whatnot to Ive's skill as a designer.
or, do this.. find a credible industrial designer or someone from a related field talking about Ive's talent in a similar manner as many in this thread are doing.. then post the quote/link here.
Irony being is that he has put on the pounds.
Macdonalds should give him a title and a quarter pounder
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Maybe apple will build a new building for Cambridge
or supply them with hardware, in such case I'm sure they are happy to call him whatever he wants. I respect individuals who refuse these.
Exactly.
Ive was at Apple before Steve came back in 1996
In the years prior to Steve's "second coming", Ive was "just" a designer.
Together with Steve, Ive could reach the heights he is now known for.
That's why Steve was such a great leader. "Get the most out of the available talents".
We miss that HUGELY with Mr. Cook.
Any designer that brags about making hundreds of versions, before getting it "right", is not a very good designer IMO.
When I worked for companies designing equipment and cases, if our case designers had taken more than one or two times to "get it right", we'd have fired them and gotten new designers.
Ive has the luxury of working for a wealthy corporation that's willing to put up with his experiments. He also gets to redo the end product every other year (so please don't try to tell me that it's about getting it perfect, because otherwise they'd stop changing the design).
While some ergonomic testing is fine, I'd rather have someone who already knows what they want to do, and how to do it.
When I worked for companies designing equipment and cases, if our case designers had taken more than one or two times to "get it right", we'd have fired them and gotten new designers.
Ive has the luxury of working for a wealthy corporation that's willing to put up with his experiments. He also gets to redo the end product every other year (so please don't try to tell me that it's about getting it perfect, because otherwise they'd stop changing the design).
While some ergonomic testing is fine, I'd rather have someone who already knows what they want to do, and how to do it.