10 points for resisting the temptation to call it "Ive Made a Mistake".
Jony, Ive Made a Mistake
Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
91–100 of 301 posts
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#92"Keep the story going. Sign up for an extra free read." Why, why, why do people create content and give it to Medium to wall it off?
As explained every day on HN, you get money and exposure.
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#93I think it's good to draw a distinction between visual design and functional design. Design that focuses on function can sometimes (but definitely not always) result in designs that are also visually appealing, but design that focuses on the visual rarely produces a very functional result. I'd much rather look at a mac book pro than a thinkpad. Next to the minimalist design of the mac, a thinkpad looks like you rippe…
Ditto on the cold/hot front. When I first worked on a macbook pro I thought if there's someway I could stick a layer of insulation on all the metal I had to make contact with. I frequently rest my palms and wrists on the keyboard pads and with metal as the only thing present I am forced to have this aluminium chassis constantly attempt to reach thermal equilibrium with my body temperature. Not fun.
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#94The thing that drives me crazy on the remote is that the buttons aren't backlit. I can't think of a better use of backlit keys. A $5 rubber case fixes the ergonomic issues, but in a dark room, not being able to see the buttons, which are impossible for me to memorize, pisses me off.
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#95The article points out some very high visibility things that Ive was either responsible for, or at least signed off on. The author though misses what I think is the one that has had the most impact on people - Apple's insistence on removal of strain relief on cables. Apple's cables have for generations now been fraying and cracking all because someone decided that strain relief was an unsightly and unnecessary thing.…
I don't think strain reliefs is the issue as much as the thinness of the cables. The magsafe power supplies do have minimal strain reliefs[1] but the insulation cracks at the end of the relief. If you tape up or reinforce the ends with tape, as I've done on numerous cables, they'll eventually crack and fray at the end of the tape. I've learned to just be very careful winding and unwinding mine and have them last for…
> do have minimal strain reliefs
That's the redesigned magsafe2 cable with longer and slightly more flexible strain relief.
The original magsafe power adapters had almost nothing, and it was a much harder plastic.
While material choice and thinness may be an issue, it's exacerbated by the strain relief being insufficient.
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
God forbid anyone who actually uses their laptop on their lap...
Using a laptop on the lap is a fine idea. It does not involve forearms digging into the edge of the laptop.
Some people use their laptops in wider situations than others. Having had creases pressed into my forearms by the edge of my MacBook while using it in various non-ideal and uncomfortable seating situation, usually on the go, I can easily say you are not one of them. Implying that we’re being dishonest or somehow incapable of using a keyboard is a bit insulting.
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes the pain is caused by a razor-sharp laptop edge, which is the point of the post. I type in two main positions–on my back like an otter, or lying face down on a mattress. I'm guessing some people here type suspended upside down from a gravity swing. The computer case design shouldn't punish us for our typing choices!
Lying on your back or lying face down or suspended from a gravity swing are all fine (albeit perhaps not ideal for very long stretches). In none of these cases should your forearms be digging into the edge of the laptop. If they are something else is wrong about the position. I occasionally type sitting on a couch, lying on my back on a bed, sitting at crappy furniture at a coffeeshop, sitting on the floor, with one…
Look, it gives me satisfaction to rest the heels of my hand on the edge of the laptop. I feel more alive when I do it. Colors are brighter. Back off!
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#98I think it's good to draw a distinction between visual design and functional design. Design that focuses on function can sometimes (but definitely not always) result in designs that are also visually appealing, but design that focuses on the visual rarely produces a very functional result. I'd much rather look at a mac book pro than a thinkpad. Next to the minimalist design of the mac, a thinkpad looks like you rippe…
iphone is the best counter argument to this. when released it was 1000x more functional and 1000x better looking than any phone available
“The iPhone Is a Breakthrough Handheld Computer”, Walt Mossberg’s original review. Maybe not 1000x, but definitely multiple X better (especially compared to leading US phones).
- First phone emphasizing Wi-Fi
- Full web browser
- Integrated iPod
http://allthingsd.com/20070626/the-iphone-is-breakthrough-ha...
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#99All the designers I've worked with have all put beauty over function. That's just who they are. I suspect that if they emphasized function their career would have been greatly impacted towards the negative. One big project that comes to mind is The Getty Museum in Los Angeles -at a billion dollar cost. The architecture is beautiful but it lacks function. Getting around the museum as a visitor is like entering a mase.…
I have never been to the Getty, but from my experience going to plenty of other museums it has always seemed like getting "lost" was the whole point. You can remove yourself from the real world for a bit and have total focus on the exhibition.
Designers should tend to put emphasis on beauty, otherwise they would just be called engineers. I'm not a designer either, but I think the secret sauce is convincing users (of hardware, software, no matter) that form followed function. Ive is most certainly a designer so the changes he made, e.g. removing ports, were driven by aesthetic rather than function. Without the checks and balances named Steve Jobs these were allowed to ship, and is a reason why Apple is getting a bad rap.
Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design
#100"That vague hostility towards humans keeps peeping through." A story recounted here last year [0]: During the development of the first iPhone, Ive and his team became enamored with the look of an extruded aluminum prototype. Even though it was immediately apparent that the model's sharp edges made it physically painful to use as a phone, they persisted in trying to push the design and paper over its principal practic…
This. As CEO, one of Steve’s key functions was to serve as chief product officer. Design is an element of great products, and at Apple it has been a key element and key differentiator. As has been oft-noted, Tim is in no way a product person, and so without Steve we have seen design imperatives (thinness) unchecked
Jobs had plenty of design failures on his conscience, like the G3 cube, the skeuomorphism fad, and the hockey puck mouse. We should not pretend the guy had irreplaceable design sense.