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Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

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Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#21

Post by petilon »

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community:

The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability features such as making buttons look like buttons are now stuffed under Accessibility options. About this, Tumblr co-founder Marco Arment wrote: "If iOS 8 can’t remove any of these options, it's a design failure." (And iOS 8 hasn't.) Michael Heilemann, Interface Director at Squarespace wrote, "when I look at [iOS 7 beta] I see anti-patterns and basic mistakes that should have been caught on the whiteboard before anyone even began thinking about coding it." And famed blogger John Gruber said this about iOS 7: "my guess is that [Steve Jobs] would not have supported this direction." Enough said.

Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#22

Post by mwfunk »

petilon wrote: post #21

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community: The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability feature…

I don't see how your second paragraph supports your first. Your second paragraph is just a bunch of quotes from various people who had mixed feelings about iOS 7. That doesn't say anything definitive about iOS 7, much less the company itself.

Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#23

Post by alayne »

petilon wrote: post #21

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community: The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability feature…

You cherry-picked a bunch of old quotes from last year that don't accurately represent any of the people quoted.

"It’s a great time to be an iOS developer." Marco Arment, June 6, 2014

Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#24

Post by sk5t »

petilon wrote: post #21

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community: The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability feature…

I'm puzzled that anyone at Squarespace would feel entitled to criticize iOS 7. In my considerable experience using Squarespace, never have I found more than a handful of its features clear and DWIM-ish.

Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#25

Post by petilon »

alayne wrote: post #23
petilon wrote: post #21

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community: The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability feature…

You cherry-picked a bunch of old quotes from last year that don't accurately represent any of the people quoted. "It’s a great time to be an iOS developer." Marco Arment, June 6, 2014

It is indeed a great time to be an iOS developer. I love Swift, technologies such as Scene Kit and so on. But that doesn't mean iOS doesn't have some real usability problems. Some of them are documented here: http://uxcritique.tumblr.com/

Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#27

Post by cmelbye »

petilon wrote: post #21

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community: The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability feature…

It's a little misleading to include only part of that quote:

"The core creative community is very small but is also very close – there’s been changes there, but the change isn’t perhaps as dramatic as you might assume."

He's saying that there have been changes to their design process and the structure of their design organization, but they haven't been as dramatic as people might assume. Meaning: iOS 7 is a dramatic change from iOS 6, so one might assume that there has been a dramatic change in who's designing the user interface and how it's being designed, but that's not the case.

Regarding the critiques of iOS 7/8 design, keep in mind that it's version one of a new design language. Look at Aqua in the Mac OS X Public Beta a decade and a half ago, and compare it to Aqua in Mavericks. It's going to take some refinement. But from what we've seen in Yosemite, and to a lesser extent iOS 8, they've already begun the process of refining their new design language.

Re: Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy

#29

Post by petilon »

cmelbye wrote: post #27
petilon wrote: post #21

It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community: The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability feature…

It's a little misleading to include only part of that quote: "The core creative community is very small but is also very close – there’s been changes there, but the change isn’t perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." He's saying that there have been changes to their design process and the structure of their design organization, but they haven't been as dramatic as people might assume. Meaning: iOS 7 is a dramatic…

They may have begun refining their design language but is it getting any better? In my opinion it isn't. Here's an example: in OS X Yosemite, buttons and textboxes are rendered the same. (See Safari toolbar for example: look at the buttons and the address textbox.) Also look at Xcode: Look at the status label on the toolbar (which used to be an "LCD".) It too is displayed with the same bevels. So labels, buttons and textboxes are indistinguishable based on their rendering. Who here thinks this is an improvement? They are getting the basics wrong.
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