[Macworld]

Post your comments for Apple's Ive reveals design secrets here

[DogHouseDub]

I wonder if anyone recorded this? I'd love to see the whole presentation.

[pcthiker]

Ive and Jobs. Giants in the world of consumer product development. We are lucky they are working in our time.

[Biallystock]

So what happens with Apple's famous 80% rule?
Satisfy 80% of users 80% of the time, or is that just for the lesser geniuses who program for Apple?
Obviously he never passes his mice past focus groups.

[jimmylittle]

I like this way of thinking. Design for the masses and you get a bland product full of compromises.
Design for the product, and you may or may not convince the public they need it, but either way, you have a fantastic device.
A lot of people gave Apple flak in the beginning of the iPod days for using a weird clicky wheel instead of rocker switches and buttons, and now it's iconic and intuitive.
People said no one would buy a phone with no buttons, and now everyone's clamoring to make one.
Apple has several failures, as well. The hockey-puck mouse comes immediately to mind, but there have been tons of others, I'm sure. But the fact remains that Apple has more wins than losses, and lately, they have Jonny Ive to thank for that.

[adobephile]

I think Apple's ID is the best it's ever been. Simple, functional, aesthetic, and inviting. It's function monitoring form for the most part. But that doesn't mean that the form shouldn't be beautiful at the same time.
In the case of the iMac, the concept of an all-in-one computer resulted in its assorted iterations over the years, but then, at the hands of Ive, he added the aesthetics of materials, simple geometry, and "thinness" which yet don't detract in the least from function, and make the machine much easier to look at for hours on end.
Love the aesthetics of the aluminum 'Books, too. Here, function called for light weight and rigidity/durability, as well as longer battery life and longer charge life at the expense of battery swapping. Seems like good trade-off for most people, including me. Who could have conceived of such a design around the time of the first Apple portable computer? It's a veritable modern miracle of aesthetics and technology.
It's no great surprise to witness the demise of American industry. They've invited such with their criminal disregard for innovation for far too long. It was sheer greed which crashed this economy on so many levels.
But Apple has been a shining example of creative innovation and corporate responsibility, not only to its shareholders and customers, but to our society as a whole.

[sharpy]

Hear hear, @adobephile.
I'm a university student aspiring to be a software developer, and it worries me that it is an industry on the decline. I wish there were more companies (or more large ones) that had Apple's regard for design excellence!
It would definitely be great to be a part of something like that.
Sharpy.

[macFanDave]

>>“I can't imagine designing without making [physical products],”...
“I love making prototypes. We go right from idea to prototypes. I just love making objects.
“Prototypes create this dramatic shift in the conversation—suddenly it becomes tangible and the silence goes away.”
This is gold!
I can't tell you how many dogmatic, arrogant, know-it-all bosses I've had that I would love throw these thoughts into their smug, close-minded faces!
I've worked in groups/departments called New Product Design, Emerging Products and Research & Development where getting permission to make a prototype of something new and different was discouraged or even forbidden. You would essentially have to steal time and resources to knock out simple proof-of-concept prototypes which would invariably change the conversation. Even people with highly-developed 3D visualization skills cannot completely grasp a new idea, even if a detailed 3D CAD model exists. Making a plastic mock-up changes everything.
Yet the world is full of bosses who seems to thrive on strangling creativity which is why their companies' products never change except maybe for some obvious adaptations contrived to be the star of the next trade show or marketing blitz.
For people like me, it's great to have Jonathan Ive on our side. You'd be shocked and depressed to realize how many who are holding the reins of power (aka money) over creativity are against us!

[rumplestiltskin]

Ask Apple Service Providers what they think of Ive's ID of the original flat-screen "snowball" iMac. You have to rip the machine apart, unseating the heat sink from the CPU, just to swap out a bad hard drive.
Then there are the post-G5 iMacs - beuatiful, indeed - but you have to remove the screen to get at anything else in the unit (well, except the RAM).
Can you say "No user serviceable parts inside"? I know you can.

[stephen520]

During a keynote speech a couple of years ago, Steve Jobs made an offhand, though striking, comment about industrial design. He said--I'm paraphrasing--that most designers stop designing when they've solved the problem they're addressing. But Apple, Jobs continued, solves the problem, then keeps refining their designs to make them simpler, more efficient, more pleasurable to use.
That one concept may well be the key to Apple's success.
Apple doesn't create new technologies, per se. I think Apple's genius lies more in employing established technologies in innovative ways*; ways that other companies can only approximate… because they stop designing once they've solved a problem, Steve Jobs himself might argue.
* before you jam Macworld's servers with comments of disagreement, I offer an example: Apple didn't create the touchscreen, but they did put it to beautiful use in the iPhone.

[MacTad]

That may be true but you'd have to pry that G4 iMac out of my cold, dead hands. I love that machine!

[heisetax]

The last time I charged my wife's 60GB iPod it was not recognizd by my computer. The iPod said that it was not safe to disconnect. This happened even after my computer was shut down. Having only a clickwheel gave me no on/off switch that would work. So since I could not get it shut down we left it home rather than taking it on vacation. The click wheel is nice when it works. The hard to take apart case meant that I coud not take the battery out to stop my problem. Just 2 of the things I do not like about the iPod. But I've purchased 5 of them for some reason.

[hurtwa]

I'm a recent (within the last three years) switcher to the Mac platform, and I still remember the exact tipping point when I decided to make the plunge and buy a Mac. I was already dreading the upgrade to Vista, but when I saw the new 24" Aluminum iMac, I had to have one. It was easily the most beautiful computer I had ever seen, and it introduced me to a whole new world where elegant design is actually important. I'v never looked back.
I'm as much a Jonathan Ive fan now as anyone else at the company.

[whitedog]

Too bad Ive doesn't also get credit for his bad designs - like the ergonomically disastrous Apple Might Mouse. And, if he did not, in fact, design that atrocity, then why hasn't he made a better one? After all, design is about more than good looks - it's also about good works.