4 myths about the design of Apple, the former Apple designer

Myth # 1 h4>

In Apple - the best designers h5> «I think the biggest misconception is the belief that Apple products better design and user experience, or that they lo & sualnye or More anything because they have the best team of designers in the world, "said Cavanaugh. But in his role evangelist user experience, he met with a team of designers of the Fortune 500 on a daily basis and more deeply studied the question.

"In fact, the whole thing in the engineering culture and how everything is structured and organized, everything revolves around the value of design. Here, everyone is thinking about UX and design, not only designers. And this is what makes all the product side is much better ... much better than any single designer or team of designers ».

It is often said that good design should start from the top - that the CEO has to worry about the design as much as and designers. People often notice that Steve Jobs brought such order at Apple. But the reason that it works, not top-down decrees. All involved.



"It's not that you get some kind of fairy wings or superpowers when you walk in Cupertino. The fact is that now you have an organization in which you can spend your time doing product design, instead of having to fight for his place at the table, or be disappointed when the best design is not seen as an engineer-manager, who only wants to correct errors . All of these things - this is something that the rest of the designers in other companies are forced to spend most of their working time. In Apple is expected to experience (experience, possibly meaning something else, approx. Interpreter) i> is really important. »

Cavanaugh stresses that all Apple - from engineers to marketers - in some ways, think like designers. Thus, HR-s hired the workers. Just like Google hires employees who think like Googlers, Apple hires employees who genuinely take into account the design in all its decisions.

"You see companies that lured designers Apple, and they come with CE & B interfaces or something interesting, but it's not necessarily good for their business or product. This is because all the designers working on the side of the interface, but to have a really good product need to possess what Steve would call 'integrity'. It's not just the interface. This design the right business model within it. Design the right marketing and distribution methods. All these parts are important. »

Myth # 2 h4>

Apple has insanely great team of designers h5> On Facebook hundreds of designers. In Google, probably 1000 or more. But when Cavanaugh was at Apple, its key products - hardware and firmware - was created by a relatively small group of about 100 people.

"I knew everyone in sight and by name," said Cavanaugh.

For most applications, Apple did not hire a specialist designer. Every designer could do and icons, and new interfaces, for example. And due to the fact that Apple is hiring engineers design-oriented, the main part of the team of design engineers could rely on to start the process of creating a new application interface, instead of first to adopt its layout.

Of course, this approach could change today.

"For Apple, have a small, focused organization would mean a lot when there was Steve, because a lot of the ideas came from Steve. So it made sense to have a smaller group to work on some of these ideas, "said Cavanaugh. "Since Apple switched to a more serious level as a company where there are several people in charge, I think they raise design team in interesting ways. »

It is worth noting that John Ive, managing hardware and software usability, mentioned that brought several people from marketing team to help redesign iOS 7. This is a good move, if you think for marketers - to be at the forefront with the designers and engineers. (This level of interaction is unprecedented in the industry).

Myth # 3 h4>

Apple deliberately is considering every detail h5> Apple products are often allocated small details, especially regarding interaction with them. Consider the case when you enter the wrong password, the password field is shaking back. This kind of parts are a delight. These are the moments that seem difficult to explain logically but important at some intuitive level.

"So many companies are trying to emulate this idea ... that we need to come up with the fastest way to do X, Y and Z. They design it, and they can not go to the next step until they make this a killer animation or model of data," explains Cavanaugh . The reality? "It is almost impossible to come up with really innovative things when you have deadlines and schedule».



Cavanaugh told us that designers (and engineers!) Apple often come up with great ideas interaction - such as interfaces in the form of 3D-cube or elastic realistic icons - in his spare time, and they can work on them for years before it will fit into a -What specific right place.

"People are constantly experimenting with these trifles, and due to the fact that the teams of all types know that other people have done, once the feature is published - for example, we need a good way to backlash on password, and we do not want to show these terrible dialogue - then look into different ways of interaction or animation concepts that have been made as funny experiments, and we look - if there is something suitable ».

But if you think of some giant repository of ideas animations, tucked inside Apple and waiting in the wings, you're wrong. It was not so, says Cavanaugh.

"There was some libraries, because most of the time there was not much of something that would be executed (officially) and could be stolen," said Cavanaugh. "It was more like the fact that there is a small team who know something to work on other people, and culture in order to comfortably share it».

Myth # 4 h4>

Zest Steve Jobs all frightened h5> Inside Apple was widespread advice - perhaps you've heard of it before - that the designer should always use the stairs because if he met Steve Jobs in the elevator, he could ask, you have worked on. And it happened to one of two things:

1. He would have hated it and you could dismiss.
2. He would have liked, he would pay attention to it, and you would have lost all the cool nights, weekends and holidays because of the employment in the project.

Cavanaugh laughs when he tells it to me, but the conclusion that he does not so simple.



"In fact, Apple's thrived people who welcomed the desire and passion to learn when working with Steve and dedicated themselves to the customer and the product. They were willing to give up weekends and holidays. And many people who have complained that it is unfair ... they saw no reason to give it all for the sake of trying to make the best product for the customer and personal sacrifice everything for the sake of this ».

"It is in such cases, many times about it evolved bad opinion, but he only wanted the best, and expect everyone to like the same. He could not understand people who do not want the same and wondered why they were working on it in this case. I think Steve was intolerant of people who did not care. It was very hard to understand why people want to work in these positions and do not want to sacrifice everything for them. »

As for Cavanaugh, if he gets ever awesome advice or a stunning compliment from Jobs?

"Nothing personal," he admits, and then laughs. "The only positive case was one day in the dining room when he told me that the salmon, which I took looked amazing and he was going to go and get yourself a».

"It was very simple. I asked him to go ahead of me (apparently in line, approx. Interpreter) i>, but he always refused. Interestingly, he was very demanding ... but this was accompanied by both, he would be very democratic and to be treated the same as all the others. And he constantly struggled with these qualities. » (constantly struggling with those roles) i>.

P.S. If you want to suggest any changes to the transfer in a personal - will be happy to correct :)

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/223937/