
Apple Names Jony Ive Chief Design Officer - shill
http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/25/apple-names-jony-ive-chief-design-officer/
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meesterdude
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.

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nationcrafting
>Design has always taken more prominence at apple over usability

I strongly disagree with you there. In fact, I'd say the exact opposite.

The experience of using the product has always been at the very core of
Apple's design philosophy. The entire desktop metaphor, include the Trash, the
files in folders, etc. is about simplifying the user experience with the
computer.

The fact that anyone can just pick up an iPhone and pretty much immediately
know what they should be doing, without reading a manual, tells you exactly
that usability has been so thought out that it has become invisible. You just
do what you want to do, without having to think about how to do it. So, it's
the embodiment of the Steve Krug "Don't make me think" mindset: usability is
design.

~~~
meesterdude
As someone who is a big fan of "don't make me think" (just bought the third
edition a few days ago, actually) I can attest that there are things that
apple has done/designed that make me think or pause. I _Don 't_ think it's
core to their philosophy - perhaps it is a part of it, but not front and
center. I get snagged on too many things for that to be the case; and it's
become noticeable in the past few years to the point of hindrance for me in
some cases.

Their keyboards and mice particularly showcase this: they look pretty and
sleek, but try using them all day, and then try using a regular keyboard and
mouse. They weren't thinking about the human who has to use it, they were
thinking of appeal and looks.

You're not wrong about the approachability of IOS; that's no accident, and
required a good deal of thought and attention. But I think whenever there is a
tie, and they can either improve the aesthetics or improve the usability, they
lean towards the former, because it's sexier and will sell.

~~~
philwelch
> Their keyboards and mice particularly showcase this: they look pretty and
> sleek, but try using them all day, and then try using a regular keyboard and
> mouse.

Having done this, I prefer the Apple products:

1\. The keyboards have very little travel so it is considerably less effort to
type on them then to type on a standard keyboard.

2\. The Magic Mouse has a large multitouch surface on it that enables gestures
that I have a hard time going without. Also, it fits my hand. YMMV.

~~~
meesterdude
Have you tried the new keyboard and trackpad on the new macbook? the keyboard
feels like buttons more than keys, and the trackpad is... not good.

but, still; matter of taste. there will always be lovers and haters, and
you're certainly welcome to prefer one over the other.

~~~
philwelch
I haven't tried the USB MacBook yet.

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discardorama
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
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
From my experience, this bug appears rather randomly.

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threeseed
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
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)

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DonGateley
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...

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ca_christie
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.

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ramosrame
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)

~~~
derefr
> 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
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)

