7 ms·

Apple Names Jony Ive Chief Design Officer

79 points by shill 11y ago

ramosrame 11y ago
The Peter Principle in effect. Apple wants Ive to be the new Jobs but his software taste just isn't as refined and it's distracting from his hardware work which is getting lazy. The Apple Watch is literally an iPhone on your wrist[0]; it's quite ugly for a watch. I'd rather have Jony back focused on hardware instead of failing upwards. [0] http://i.imgur.com/8pcfcbk.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8pcfcbk.jpg
- callumjones 11y ago
  The Apple Watch is a hardware device so I think you've picked the wrong reference for his supposed unrefined software taste (which I think iOS 8+ proves this incorrect). Also you've shown a comparison between a first generation device and first generation device, what is particularly wrong with the watch?
- DigitalJack 11y ago
  And nobody ever said the same thing about iPad.
  - thejosh 11y ago
    Seriously, the amount of jokes about the iPad when that first came out were hilarious because now all those jokers have an iPad themselves.
    - Gigablah 11y ago
      iPad usage seems to have dropped significantly, though. I almost never see anyone using it anymore. They're gathering dust in cupboards.
      - threeseed 11y ago
        It hasn't dropped significantly within the tablet market: https://chitika.com/insights/2015/q1-tablet-update https://chitika.com/insights/2015/q1-tablet-update If you are talking about the entire table market dropping in usage then it isn't significant (6% y/y): http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25593415 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25593415
      - IBM 11y ago
        According to Tim Cook on a recent earnings call, usage of iPads and customer satisfaction has remained the same. It's pretty much just replacement cycles that will determine iPad sales going forward.
      - Watabou 11y ago
        I think this is mostly due to the replacement cycle. Most people who want the iPad, bought one. But -- you don't replace an iPad every year or two like you do an iPhone. Even if you have the iPad 2 for instance, it's a very capable device, there's no reason to go out right now and buy the latest iPad unless you specifically want extra features like Touch ID.
      - parasubvert 11y ago
        Completely the opposite from what I see. They're everywhere I look, at work, at home, on the train, at restaurants. Kids especially can't get enough of them. Sales have dropped off, but even the browser market share for iPad remains high among tablets.
        threatofrain 11y ago
        I am surprised that your personal experience is one of many iPads in the wild. When I'm going about cafes, bookstores, and libraries, in or about Cupertino, Mountain View, and Palo Alto, I find that people almost exclusively use laptops as their sit-down device. I wouldn't be surprised if phones were the second most-used sit-down device.
        parasubvert 11y ago
- derefr 11y ago
  > The Apple Watch is literally an iPhone on your wrist[0]; it's quite ugly for a watch. I agree; it's literally an iPhone 1. But I think the iPhone 1 looked the way it did due to some pretty heavy design-constraints—it wasn't simple, back then, to get the amount of hardware they did into the package-size. And the same is true today with the Watch. I fully expect the package to shrink and the design to become less "forced" and more "designed" over time.
  - nathancahill 11y ago
    Not sure where I saw this, but love this image likening the two, captioned "A New Start": http://i.imgur.com/QDMncbP.png http://i.imgur.com/QDMncbP.png Ah, here's the source: https://twitter.com/lukew/status/594628479766761472 https://twitter.com/lukew/status/594628479766761472
- kaolinite 11y ago
  It might look like an iPhone in a way but frankly, it'd be odd if it didn't. The question is whether they just shrank the iPhone software - that's what matters - and quite clearly, they didn't. There are a few changes they could make but for a first generation product, they nailed it on so many levels. Regarding aesthetics, clearly that's subjective, but many traditional watch enthusiasts (such as Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee and Ariel Adams of aBlogToWatch) have had a number of good things to say about the hardware design. From Hodinkee's fantastic Apple Watch piece[1]: "Apple got more details right on their watch than the vast majority of Swiss and Asian brands do with similarly priced watches, and those details add up to a really impressive piece of design" Finally, to address your initial point, I see no evidence that his software taste is less refined, nor that his hardware work is getting lazy. iOS 7, which I suspect is what you're referring to regarding his software taste, received some negative feedback when first unveiled but has since become well liked, albeit with a few lingering usability concerns, especially since they refined it with iOS 8. The Apple Watch bands alone are incredibly well designed, with a number of improvements over traditional watch bands that the Swiss ought to be ashamed they hadn't invented yet[2]. I'll give two examples. 1. If you've ever changed a leather watch band, you'll know how much of a pain it is. Most people go to a watchmaker to change them. Apple Watch bands are easily interchangeable. How obvious, right? Yet nobody else does this. 2. If you've ever bought a watch with a metal link bracelet, you need to have it adjusted for you at the store. Why? Because you need a specialist tool to do it. If you ever need to change the size, you need to go into a store to get it readjusted[3]. Again, incredibly obvious to make this user interchangeable, yet nobody else did it. If Ive was as lazy as you say, he would have been happy to use traditional watch bands, the type that every other watch and smartwatch uses, and require users to go into an Apple Store to change them or to adjust them. Two examples of great design, off the top of my head, just for watch bands - I can't imagine how you think he's lazy. [1] http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review [2] And this isn't due to a lack of innovation. The Swiss (and watchmakers of other countries too) spend a lot of time sweating the details on watch straps, buckles and deployant clasps, e.g. http://www.rolex.com/about-rolex/bracelets.html http://www.rolex.com/about-rolex/bracelets.html [3] In addition, the tools for this often proprietary or vary by brand. Check out the variety of tools that are available for adjusting watch bracelets: http://www.ofrei.com/page237.html http://www.ofrei.com/page237.html Leather watch strap spring bars (the little bit of metal that attaches the band to the lugs) are also often proprietary.
- threeseed 11y ago
  I think you need to learn what literally means. It isn't an iPhone on your wrist and when you actually use it has its own identity, behaviour patterns and user interface paradigms (tap, digital crown). Your argument is no different to the "iPad is just a bigger iPhone" which has been shown to be baseless by anyone who has ever owned one. As for it being ugly I respectively disagree and given the popularity amongst fashion circles and in general I am guessing most others do too.
  - danellis 11y ago
    > I think you need to learn what literally means. From MW: in effect : virtually <will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice — Norman Cousins> From Google: informal used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true. "I have received literally thousands of letters" From dictionary.com: in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually: I literally died when she walked out on stage in that costume.
    - acheron 11y ago
      These people are making language objectively worse and should not be encouraged.
      - danellis 11y ago
        Who are "these people"? People documenting a word's meaning that has been in use for over a hundred years? That's their job.
    - threeseed 11y ago
      Being a bit disingenuous, no ? Literally has two definitions the first being the more correct as it is an extension of the word literal. The classical definition and the more recent definition (last few years). http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/literally http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/literal... As I articulated, in both definitions it is not like having an iPhone on your wrist.
- IkmoIkmo 11y ago
  I didn't have much against the Apple watch myself. It's an incredibly tricky thing to pull off and I don't really think anyone has so far. What were you expecting in terms of design? It seems like it's hands down the best watch with straps very well done. I prefer a circular look but then I can easily understand going for a regular look both technically (more hardware volume) and design wise (most information is displayed much better in rectangular form). There'll be a few iterations to make it nicer looking, can't say they did a bad job. About the rectangular/circular form thing... I think the problem may be calling it a smartwatch. A smartphone isn't really a smartphone. It's a portable all-in-one (built in screen, speakers, microphone etc) computer, whose telephone functionality happens to be the least interesting (and at one point shifting to voice over ip, meaning it's as much a smartphone as your laptop or desktop computer is). Calling phones small tablets makes more sense, at least until recently when phones rival tablet sizes. But nobody really complains because the semantical evolution makes some sense and doesn't cause any real friction. But with a smartwatch, people expect it to look like this [0] but it doesn't, because it's main function is not telling time. Its main function is being a wrist computer, which happens to also be able to tell time. And that wrist computer does things that fit better in a rectangular form, which creates friction with people to whom a rectangular watch happens to be pretty ugly. Anyway I didn't think the first iPhone was particularly pretty. I can't say the apple watch is different. In today's context it is nice in my opinion, just like the iphone was back then in comparison, but I still don't want an apple watch right now. I'm happy to wait out the 2016-17 versions. [0] http://icdn8.digitaltrends.com/image/round-apple-watch-concept-2-1280x864.png http://icdn8.digitaltrends.com/image/round-apple-watch-conce...
meesterdude 11y ago
I was always inspired more by Jony Ive over Steve Jobs. In interviews he was always more real to me, more humble. A simple take away I've had from Johny (and steve to some extent) is to simply pay attention, to everything and anything. That kind of care and focus is how they get to be apple, versus good enough. But will their products get better as a result of this? or will they continue to decline? Design has always taken more prominence at apple over usability (do they even have a Chief Usability Officer?) To some degree it's a tolerable tradeoff to make; but I've noticed their products have become significantly more design focused and well, pretty much everything else has taken back seat. Perhaps there's TOO much design, and not enough of everything else. Maybe Steve was that balance to Jony and now the ying is yangless. Or maybe they're just optimizing their business for other things, and the things that matter to me are insignificant to them now.
- phaus 11y ago
  I think Jony is even more pretentious than Steve. Isn't he the one that used red anodized aluminum to make a Mac Pro for a charity and then acted as if he "designed" a special version?
  - prawn 11y ago
    I agree. Jobs got away with his act because he more or less invented it. Jony is acting the act. From what I've seen, I find him really off-putting. Once tasted wine at a place where the host was too slick, too smooth, too rehearsed. I had to walk out and leave our group with it. He reminds me of that.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      I think it is more that Jobs was a natural, the guy seemed to be a functioning psycopath/sociopath.
  - threeseed 11y ago
    Jony is an industrial designer by trade and heart. So "design" for him and everyone else doesn't just mean how it looks but how it is made. I don't know about the process for making the Mac Pro red but given how much time Apple spends on material engineering I would assume it is non trivial.
threeseed 11y ago
I think it's nonsense that Ive would be working on future Apple Stores or even spending much time on Campus 2 (it has largely been already designed). Pretty clear he will be spending more time with Marc Newson designing the next category of products i.e. the much rumoured Apple Car.
- kaolinite 11y ago
  I think there's a very good chance he'll be working on Apple Store design, alongside Angela Ahrendts. I think there's a very good chance she'll want a redesign and, for something so critical to Apple's success, Ive will definitely want to be involved. He was involved in the design of the new Apple Watch display tables[1] that have arrived in Apple stores, as mentioned in the fairly recent interview with Ive in The New Yorker, so I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be involved in store design, too. [1] https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/watch4.png https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/watch4.png
- nothis 11y ago
  >the much rumoured Apple Car. That's a serious rumor? The amount of critical parts in designing a car seems so overwhelming, I don't even see Apple having any real advantage, here. No real overlap with Apple's strengths. Even Google will probably at best just sell their navigation software, not full blown cars. Speaking of Google... maybe an Apple version of Google Glass?
- Bud 11y ago
  I worked on Campus 2 for quite a while. I can testify that Ive was present in meetings for the project. Quite regularly. It's not really relevant that the basic design is complete; Ive is heavily involved with the execution.
- seiji 11y ago
  > (it has largely been already designed). Did you read one of his interviews? For the campus, he's personally designing new doorways and new hallways and prototyping 50 kinds of cafeteria seating and two dozen other things... kinda crazy, but perfection isn't going to make itself.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
discardorama 11y ago
While I have tremendous respect for Sir Ive as a designer, I'm beginning to notice a trailing-off of quality in Apple's software products ever since Jobs departed. Little quirks and irritants which would never have made it to the outside world in Jobs' days, are now sneaking out. Apple has the design part covered, but it seriously needs a fanatic who will make sure that every iOS release is perfect. They lost that fanatic, and he hasn't been replaced.
- meesterdude 11y ago
  I've seen similar across their products too. Like the volume up/down display that appears whenever you change the volume; it's supposed to have rounded corners, but they goofed and it displays the area between the rounded corner and actual corner as black instead of transparent. At least for me.
  - asiekierka 11y ago
    From my experience, this bug appears rather randomly.
DonGateley 11y ago
Ive will be remembered as the man who succeeded (for only a while I hope) in removing graphics completely from graphic design. Flat "design" is uniformly featureless to make it easy for developers to make apps while requiring no skills in graphic design or expense on the same. Lower the bar and level the field. It's about apps, apps, apps...
ca_christie 11y ago
Jonny Ive and his team spent 18 months perfecting the 'tap' notification for the Apple Watch. This attention to detail has everything to do with Usability and nothing to do with design. So, as with other commenters on this topic, I strongly disagree that design has always taken prominence over usability, to me it't the exact opposite. It's not all 'roses in the garden' however. Apple have really let themselves down with OSX, which in terms of Usability doesn't hold a candle against Windows OS. Agreed, some will argue that Windows evolved out of OSX in terms of interface - but for me, the usability attributed to Windows is far superior.

79 points by shill 11y ago

The Peter Principle in effect. Apple wants Ive to be the new Jobs but his software taste just isn't as refined and it's distracting from his hardware work which is getting lazy. The Apple Watch is literally an iPhone on your wrist[0]; it's quite ugly for a watch. I'd rather have Jony back focused on hardware instead of failing upwards. [0] http://i.imgur.com/8pcfcbk.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8pcfcbk.jpg

callumjones 11y ago
The Apple Watch is a hardware device so I think you've picked the wrong reference for his supposed unrefined software taste (which I think iOS 8+ proves this incorrect). Also you've shown a comparison between a first generation device and first generation device, what is particularly wrong with the watch?
DigitalJack 11y ago
And nobody ever said the same thing about iPad.
- thejosh 11y ago
  Seriously, the amount of jokes about the iPad when that first came out were hilarious because now all those jokers have an iPad themselves.
  - Gigablah 11y ago
    iPad usage seems to have dropped significantly, though. I almost never see anyone using it anymore. They're gathering dust in cupboards.
    - threeseed 11y ago
      It hasn't dropped significantly within the tablet market: https://chitika.com/insights/2015/q1-tablet-update https://chitika.com/insights/2015/q1-tablet-update If you are talking about the entire table market dropping in usage then it isn't significant (6% y/y): http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25593415 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25593415
    - IBM 11y ago
      According to Tim Cook on a recent earnings call, usage of iPads and customer satisfaction has remained the same. It's pretty much just replacement cycles that will determine iPad sales going forward.
    - Watabou 11y ago
      I think this is mostly due to the replacement cycle. Most people who want the iPad, bought one. But -- you don't replace an iPad every year or two like you do an iPhone. Even if you have the iPad 2 for instance, it's a very capable device, there's no reason to go out right now and buy the latest iPad unless you specifically want extra features like Touch ID.
    - parasubvert 11y ago
      Completely the opposite from what I see. They're everywhere I look, at work, at home, on the train, at restaurants. Kids especially can't get enough of them. Sales have dropped off, but even the browser market share for iPad remains high among tablets.
      - threatofrain 11y ago
        I am surprised that your personal experience is one of many iPads in the wild. When I'm going about cafes, bookstores, and libraries, in or about Cupertino, Mountain View, and Palo Alto, I find that people almost exclusively use laptops as their sit-down device. I wouldn't be surprised if phones were the second most-used sit-down device.
        parasubvert 11y ago
derefr 11y ago
> The Apple Watch is literally an iPhone on your wrist[0]; it's quite ugly for a watch. I agree; it's literally an iPhone 1. But I think the iPhone 1 looked the way it did due to some pretty heavy design-constraints—it wasn't simple, back then, to get the amount of hardware they did into the package-size. And the same is true today with the Watch. I fully expect the package to shrink and the design to become less "forced" and more "designed" over time.
- nathancahill 11y ago
  Not sure where I saw this, but love this image likening the two, captioned "A New Start": http://i.imgur.com/QDMncbP.png http://i.imgur.com/QDMncbP.png Ah, here's the source: https://twitter.com/lukew/status/594628479766761472 https://twitter.com/lukew/status/594628479766761472
kaolinite 11y ago
It might look like an iPhone in a way but frankly, it'd be odd if it didn't. The question is whether they just shrank the iPhone software - that's what matters - and quite clearly, they didn't. There are a few changes they could make but for a first generation product, they nailed it on so many levels. Regarding aesthetics, clearly that's subjective, but many traditional watch enthusiasts (such as Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee and Ariel Adams of aBlogToWatch) have had a number of good things to say about the hardware design. From Hodinkee's fantastic Apple Watch piece[1]: "Apple got more details right on their watch than the vast majority of Swiss and Asian brands do with similarly priced watches, and those details add up to a really impressive piece of design" Finally, to address your initial point, I see no evidence that his software taste is less refined, nor that his hardware work is getting lazy. iOS 7, which I suspect is what you're referring to regarding his software taste, received some negative feedback when first unveiled but has since become well liked, albeit with a few lingering usability concerns, especially since they refined it with iOS 8. The Apple Watch bands alone are incredibly well designed, with a number of improvements over traditional watch bands that the Swiss ought to be ashamed they hadn't invented yet[2]. I'll give two examples. 1. If you've ever changed a leather watch band, you'll know how much of a pain it is. Most people go to a watchmaker to change them. Apple Watch bands are easily interchangeable. How obvious, right? Yet nobody else does this. 2. If you've ever bought a watch with a metal link bracelet, you need to have it adjusted for you at the store. Why? Because you need a specialist tool to do it. If you ever need to change the size, you need to go into a store to get it readjusted[3]. Again, incredibly obvious to make this user interchangeable, yet nobody else did it. If Ive was as lazy as you say, he would have been happy to use traditional watch bands, the type that every other watch and smartwatch uses, and require users to go into an Apple Store to change them or to adjust them. Two examples of great design, off the top of my head, just for watch bands - I can't imagine how you think he's lazy. [1] http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review [2] And this isn't due to a lack of innovation. The Swiss (and watchmakers of other countries too) spend a lot of time sweating the details on watch straps, buckles and deployant clasps, e.g. http://www.rolex.com/about-rolex/bracelets.html http://www.rolex.com/about-rolex/bracelets.html [3] In addition, the tools for this often proprietary or vary by brand. Check out the variety of tools that are available for adjusting watch bracelets: http://www.ofrei.com/page237.html http://www.ofrei.com/page237.html Leather watch strap spring bars (the little bit of metal that attaches the band to the lugs) are also often proprietary.
threeseed 11y ago
I think you need to learn what literally means. It isn't an iPhone on your wrist and when you actually use it has its own identity, behaviour patterns and user interface paradigms (tap, digital crown). Your argument is no different to the "iPad is just a bigger iPhone" which has been shown to be baseless by anyone who has ever owned one. As for it being ugly I respectively disagree and given the popularity amongst fashion circles and in general I am guessing most others do too.
- danellis 11y ago
  > I think you need to learn what literally means. From MW: in effect : virtually <will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice — Norman Cousins> From Google: informal used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true. "I have received literally thousands of letters" From dictionary.com: in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually: I literally died when she walked out on stage in that costume.
  - acheron 11y ago
    These people are making language objectively worse and should not be encouraged.
    - danellis 11y ago
      Who are "these people"? People documenting a word's meaning that has been in use for over a hundred years? That's their job.
  - threeseed 11y ago
    Being a bit disingenuous, no ? Literally has two definitions the first being the more correct as it is an extension of the word literal. The classical definition and the more recent definition (last few years). http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/literally http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/literal... As I articulated, in both definitions it is not like having an iPhone on your wrist.
IkmoIkmo 11y ago
I didn't have much against the Apple watch myself. It's an incredibly tricky thing to pull off and I don't really think anyone has so far. What were you expecting in terms of design? It seems like it's hands down the best watch with straps very well done. I prefer a circular look but then I can easily understand going for a regular look both technically (more hardware volume) and design wise (most information is displayed much better in rectangular form). There'll be a few iterations to make it nicer looking, can't say they did a bad job. About the rectangular/circular form thing... I think the problem may be calling it a smartwatch. A smartphone isn't really a smartphone. It's a portable all-in-one (built in screen, speakers, microphone etc) computer, whose telephone functionality happens to be the least interesting (and at one point shifting to voice over ip, meaning it's as much a smartphone as your laptop or desktop computer is). Calling phones small tablets makes more sense, at least until recently when phones rival tablet sizes. But nobody really complains because the semantical evolution makes some sense and doesn't cause any real friction. But with a smartwatch, people expect it to look like this [0] but it doesn't, because it's main function is not telling time. Its main function is being a wrist computer, which happens to also be able to tell time. And that wrist computer does things that fit better in a rectangular form, which creates friction with people to whom a rectangular watch happens to be pretty ugly. Anyway I didn't think the first iPhone was particularly pretty. I can't say the apple watch is different. In today's context it is nice in my opinion, just like the iphone was back then in comparison, but I still don't want an apple watch right now. I'm happy to wait out the 2016-17 versions. [0] http://icdn8.digitaltrends.com/image/round-apple-watch-concept-2-1280x864.png http://icdn8.digitaltrends.com/image/round-apple-watch-conce...

meesterdude 11y ago

I was always inspired more by Jony Ive over Steve Jobs. In interviews he was always more real to me, more humble. A simple take away I've had from Johny (and steve to some extent) is to simply pay attention, to everything and anything. That kind of care and focus is how they get to be apple, versus good enough. But will their products get better as a result of this? or will they continue to decline? Design has always taken more prominence at apple over usability (do they even have a Chief Usability Officer?) To some degree it's a tolerable tradeoff to make; but I've noticed their products have become significantly more design focused and well, pretty much everything else has taken back seat. Perhaps there's TOO much design, and not enough of everything else. Maybe Steve was that balance to Jony and now the ying is yangless. Or maybe they're just optimizing their business for other things, and the things that matter to me are insignificant to them now.

phaus 11y ago
I think Jony is even more pretentious than Steve. Isn't he the one that used red anodized aluminum to make a Mac Pro for a charity and then acted as if he "designed" a special version?
- prawn 11y ago
  I agree. Jobs got away with his act because he more or less invented it. Jony is acting the act. From what I've seen, I find him really off-putting. Once tasted wine at a place where the host was too slick, too smooth, too rehearsed. I had to walk out and leave our group with it. He reminds me of that.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    I think it is more that Jobs was a natural, the guy seemed to be a functioning psycopath/sociopath.
- threeseed 11y ago
  Jony is an industrial designer by trade and heart. So "design" for him and everyone else doesn't just mean how it looks but how it is made. I don't know about the process for making the Mac Pro red but given how much time Apple spends on material engineering I would assume it is non trivial.

threeseed 11y ago

I think it's nonsense that Ive would be working on future Apple Stores or even spending much time on Campus 2 (it has largely been already designed). Pretty clear he will be spending more time with Marc Newson designing the next category of products i.e. the much rumoured Apple Car.

kaolinite 11y ago
I think there's a very good chance he'll be working on Apple Store design, alongside Angela Ahrendts. I think there's a very good chance she'll want a redesign and, for something so critical to Apple's success, Ive will definitely want to be involved. He was involved in the design of the new Apple Watch display tables[1] that have arrived in Apple stores, as mentioned in the fairly recent interview with Ive in The New Yorker, so I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be involved in store design, too. [1] https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/watch4.png https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/watch4.png
nothis 11y ago
>the much rumoured Apple Car. That's a serious rumor? The amount of critical parts in designing a car seems so overwhelming, I don't even see Apple having any real advantage, here. No real overlap with Apple's strengths. Even Google will probably at best just sell their navigation software, not full blown cars. Speaking of Google... maybe an Apple version of Google Glass?
Bud 11y ago
I worked on Campus 2 for quite a while. I can testify that Ive was present in meetings for the project. Quite regularly. It's not really relevant that the basic design is complete; Ive is heavily involved with the execution.
seiji 11y ago
> (it has largely been already designed). Did you read one of his interviews? For the campus, he's personally designing new doorways and new hallways and prototyping 50 kinds of cafeteria seating and two dozen other things... kinda crazy, but perfection isn't going to make itself.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

discardorama 11y ago

While I have tremendous respect for Sir Ive as a designer, I'm beginning to notice a trailing-off of quality in Apple's software products ever since Jobs departed. Little quirks and irritants which would never have made it to the outside world in Jobs' days, are now sneaking out. Apple has the design part covered, but it seriously needs a fanatic who will make sure that every iOS release is perfect. They lost that fanatic, and he hasn't been replaced.

meesterdude 11y ago
I've seen similar across their products too. Like the volume up/down display that appears whenever you change the volume; it's supposed to have rounded corners, but they goofed and it displays the area between the rounded corner and actual corner as black instead of transparent. At least for me.
- asiekierka 11y ago
  From my experience, this bug appears rather randomly.

DonGateley 11y ago

Ive will be remembered as the man who succeeded (for only a while I hope) in removing graphics completely from graphic design. Flat "design" is uniformly featureless to make it easy for developers to make apps while requiring no skills in graphic design or expense on the same. Lower the bar and level the field. It's about apps, apps, apps...

ca_christie 11y ago

Jonny Ive and his team spent 18 months perfecting the 'tap' notification for the Apple Watch. This attention to detail has everything to do with Usability and nothing to do with design. So, as with other commenters on this topic, I strongly disagree that design has always taken prominence over usability, to me it't the exact opposite. It's not all 'roses in the garden' however. Apple have really let themselves down with OSX, which in terms of Usability doesn't hold a candle against Windows OS. Agreed, some will argue that Windows evolved out of OSX in terms of interface - but for me, the usability attributed to Windows is far superior.