Jony Ive Discusses Apple's Creative Design Processes

[petsounds]

But the BEST product Apple has had, OS X, nobody even bothers to say 'Yeah, I really like OS X over Windows' but rather you hear people saying 'I want <insert iOS product here> or a MacBook' without acknowleding the fact that OS X is the reason why Apple's *real* computers have been so good.

I think people take OS X for granted. It's the dependable friend that may not be the life of the party, but drives you home when you had too much party. That, and Windows has caught up a bit. But I think when people say, "I want a MacBook", OS X is an unspoken part of the deal.

Let's be fair though -- OS X is basically a reskin of NeXT's NeXTSTEP OS. (In fact, most of the internal developer APIs still use classnames that start with "NS") Apple made it more consumer-focused, but I would say it's only as much of an "Apple product" as Siri is -- they are both technologies gained through company acquisitions. That NeXT was Steve's company does help a bit, but I've always wondered how much Steve was really involved in the design of NeXTSTEP considering he wasn't really a techie.

 

[nikhsub1]

But the article is only talking about the design rather than an entirely new product. That's exactly what Ive is talking about here his design perspective, it's different from normal devices out there. We all know that Apple didn't started all of this, but they revolutionize some of it. Don't be ridiculous.

I'm not trying to be difficult here, I just wanted some clarity. Apple has never defined a new category of device - at least that I can see or remember. That said, their design of just about everything they make has been revolutionary and has made industries rethink the categories.

 

[Navdakilla]

People don't need any of these devices. But, they are really useful. Surprisingly useful, really.

yup.. agree

 

[JimMacFan]

Ives is very talented, but his corporate picture comes across as pompous......just an observation/opinion. Smile Ives! You're rich!

 

[little.pm]

Henry Ford didn't create a new product either. He wasn't the first to design an horseless carriage, but he's remembered as the man who brought it to the world.

Nope, that would have been Benz with the "Mercedes Benz". (later cooperating with a guy called "Daimler".)

Who here remembers who sold the very first digital music player?

Question should be: "who brought the first music player to market, that my grandma could use?"
That thingy was called a "gramophone" and it had an idiot safe user interface.

Yeah, me neither. Because it was crap. Apple was the first one to bring one to market that wasn't crap.

Sony DiscMan was quite a good device (as I skipped that WalkMan era) and those where not crap at all - apple just went on to take the idea of an mp3 player and to built a product everyone would be able to use easily.

It is never about Apple - but about products which are easy to use.

 

[insider-man]

Nope, that would have been Benz with the "Mercedes Benz". (later cooperating with a guy called "Daimler".)


Question should be: "who brought the first music player to market, that my grandma could use?"
That thingy was called a "gramophone" and it had an idiot safe user interface.



Sony DiscMan was quite a good device (as I skipped that WalkMan era) and those where not crap at all - apple just went on to take the idea of an mp3 player and to built a product everyone would be able to use easily.

It is never about Apple - but about products which are easy to use.

Well some people might want to check the history books - Apple blatantly copied the iPod interface from the Creative Nomad Jukebox and were indeed successfully sued by Creative to the tune of 100 million dollars.

The Nomad Jukebox was around a full year earlier than the iPod and with exactly the same interface (with 6Gb capacity also). The iPod at the time was an also ran, without iTunes the iPod would of become just another mp3 player and not a very good one at that! As history has shown iTunes has been the major reason for the success of the iPod.

 

[petsounds]

Well some people might want to check the history books - Apple blatantly copied the iPod interface from the Creative Nomad Jukebox and were indeed successfully sued by Creative to the tune of 100 million dollars.

The Nomad Jukebox was around a full year earlier than the iPod and with exactly the same interface (with 6Gb capacity also). The iPod at the time was an also ran, without iTunes the iPod would of become just another mp3 player and not a very good one at that! As history has shown iTunes has been the major reason for the success of the iPod.

You mean the ridiculous patent on a UI which features a hierarchical menu of items? Come on. Oh right, it was a valid patent because it a hierarchical menu on an mp3 player! That makes it totally unique and without prior art...

The real innovation on the iPod from a hardware perspective was the scrollwheel. It made the process of navigating through thousands of songs not torturous. It certainly wasn't an instant hit though.

You know, it's kind of funny now that I think about it. Why did Apple not migrate the scrollwheel gesture over for the Music app on iOS? It would be a much better gesture for one-handed control of volume and track scrubbing than the sliders Apple uses for those functions. But then again, I have quite a few issues with the user experience on iOS...

 

[crazy dave]

I'll highlight the relevant part for you since you obviously missed it.

This creates opportunities that could replace entire categories of device, rather than tactically responding to an individual problem. That’s the real challenge, and that’s what is exciting."

That's actually different from what you are claiming he said. He's talking about a brand new design that isn't meant to solve an individual problem singularly, but create something new that displaces the current product(s) meant to cover the range of functionality of the product you now offer.

Unfortunately I phrased that awkwardly so I'll try an example: The iPhone. Previous to the iPhone there were smartphones; there were devices with touch screens; there were PDAs; and there were MP3 players (including iPods of course) etc ... In many ways the iPhone is just the evolution of these categories of devices - but that's the thing, it evolved from multiple device categories combining functionality and UI so fluidly that it displaced the products in all of those device categories. Yes the lineage of individual components can be traced to X,Y, and Z, but it's the novelty of the combination of elements and UI that made the iPhone the forebearer of the modern touchscreen smartphone.

This is in contrast to the design problem that looks at the shortcomings of the iPhone 1 and then adds or modifies specific features meant to solve specific problems with the functionality/design thus resulting in a competitor to the iPhone 1 if it is another company or the iPhone3G if it is Apple.

Obviously both design processes happen at Apple, but Ive is just saying that it is a lot of fun getting to work on the former - which one would expect to be so.

 

[jacobj]

I think many would prefer Sir Jony Ive to present Apple's keynotes over Tim Cook, all due respect to Mr. Cook.

As a Brit and as a person that shares Ive's ideology (although backed up by no talent whatsoever), I am tempted to agree. However I think that Ive is too softly spoken and too nice. I think people would start to sicken of his nicey niceness and would start to see too much of the man and not enough of what he achieves. Whilst he is elusive we can all imagine the man and assume that every brilliant touch was his idea and not a happy accident (as many of them are I am sure).

 

[swarleystinson]

I'd much rather listen to a keynote from Forstal and Ive than the two guys we had last week. Let the CEO talk market numbers and such, then hand the stage over.

I just love listening to Ive speak. Forget all the rest. Anyone else simply mesmerized by this guy's voice? He could be selling me a stick and I would buy it.

'... Beautiful refined woodwork. We've refined this process down to it's most natural and radiant elements. We've stripped the bark so you can see purest natural tones in the wood. It's so exciting to be a part of this process.'

 

[ProVideo]

Ive with hair @5:42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb9NbH_2QRc