All Articles Tagged design

figure 1: on left, iPhone from yesterday’s keynote. Note the orange. On right, my iPhone.

I’m almost I’m embarrassed to report it, but I noticed that Calculator is getting a new icon. I think it’s safe to say that it will arrive with the new update. In other news, I looked through the localizable.strings file for the new iTunes, and found no new strings of note pertaining to the iPhone.

There’s an insightful post over at 37signals that talks about the handoff of design cues that iterate from product to product from Apple. He adroitly notes the design similarities between the iPhone and the new iMac; he similarly notes the connections between the iPod and the old iMac. It goes without saying that a company that was in such a hurry to drop keyboards for their iPhones sure makes some nice keys for the computers that still need them. [Daring Fireball Filter]

So, after twelve hours of waiting in line, it didn’t take me long to take the iPhone out and start playing around with it. I didn’t get the zip and seal treatment that some folks got at AT&T stores, but then again, the MOA was trying to zip people through as efficiently as possible. Here are my impressions, there will be a full review later with video and pictures.

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It fascinates me that Apple’s marketing and commercial videos for the iPhone so far has also been all training. They show the iPhone being used for the main tasks that people will use, and that’s it. The interface is good enough that it sells itself and doubles as a training video, which is brilliant.

• YouTube
• Google Maps
• Internet Browsing
• iPod Video
• Overall How-To

• the guided tour video
• activation and sync video

One of the things that Jobs really was intent on talking about throughout the D5 conference is what happens to computers and gadgets in what he called the Post-PC era. That’s not to say that the PC, as in personal computer, is going away. Far from it; it’s still necessary to function as a media center, digital hub, or media entertainment center. All of those gadgets in your drawer, they have to sync to something.

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Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, has won another award. This award is from Cooper-Hewitt, who gives out the National Desgin Awards. Ive’s specific award is for Product Design, unsurprisingly, but I don’t think it’s too long before we see him in the “Lifetime Achievement” section.

Technorati Tags: apple, design, ive

MIT’s Technology Review has a great article on the history of design principles at Apple. It goes in depth as to why Apple is so focused in on it.

Apple without design focus:

And, Norman adds, the consultative process could take a toll on the product line as a whole. Look, he says, at the 70-odd Performa models Apple churned out between 1992 and 1997–models that varied only in hard-drive size, in whether they had modems, or in whether they were sold directly or through a retailer.

And Apple with design focus:

One direct result of that sharpened focus is Apple’s unique ability to create simple products. Though the idea of a simple high-tech device seems counterintuitive (why not offer more functionality if you can?), it’s worked for Apple.

“The hardest part of design, especially consumer electronics,” says Norman, “is keeping features out.” Simplicity, he says, is in itself a product differentiator, and pursuing it can lead to innovation.

Rolston agrees. “The most fundamental thing about Apple that’s interesting to me,” he says, “is that they’re just as smart about what they don’t do. Great products can be made more beautiful by omitting things.”

I’m a big believer in the idea that simplicity is a part of good design. My understanding of design isn’t vaunted or anything, but I know what I like. I don’t want a phone that looks like my remote.