How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name

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What do you guys think about this? Is this guy onto something or just on something?

Apple is destroying design. Worse, it is revitalizing the old belief that design is only about making things look pretty. No, not so! Design is a way of thinking, of determining people’s true, underlying needs, and then delivering products and services that help them.
 
In reading that article I disagree with a lot of the points.Especially when comparing those statements to other current and previous OS's. Do I think Apple has taken a huge step back recently? Sure. However this is pointing at back to the iPhone 1 era, which (IMO) is still essentially still being copied by nearly every mobile interface to this day. It's brilliantly mindless and nearly anyone can figure out how to use even the most complex features in a matter of minutes.
 
"The products, especially those built on iOS, Apple’s operating system for mobile devices, no longer follow the well-known, well-established principles of design that Apple developed several decades ago."


Decades ago, the man in charge was Steve Jobs. He was into the details. Tim Cook is not into the details in my opinion.
 
The day that Jony Ive took full control over UI look-and-feel is when Apple's design language went straight down the shitter. How many taps should it take to display the currently playing song? How strong of a microscope should be needed to read the artist & title of the song once it's displayed? When given the opportunity of a large Springboard home page, why are we still limited to 20 icons (it really looks ridiculous on an iPad Pro) and was Skeuomorphism really all that bad?

Ive isn't the genius that even Jobs thought he was: he unapologetically cribbed his designs from Braun:

http://gizmodo.com/343641/1960s-braun-products-hold-the-secrets-to-apples-future

But don't try to tell the Apple sycophants that ...
 
I do know ease of reading is the #1 reason my mother picked Windows Phone. She just wanted a smartphone for email, browsing, texting and a other things. Windows Phone with its higher contracts fonts to background and the back, start and search buttons made it easier for her to use.

To each their own.
 
iOS and iTunes have declined markedly in ease of use and reliability over the last few years; if there was a better option I would buy it, but android is even worse...
 
I'll give you one example, THE QWERTY PHONE! Give it back already you freakin Apple sheep wanna bees. If I wanted an Apple iPhone I would have bought one.

nokia-n950-1200x630-c.jpg
 
Some of his examples I don't really agree with. For instance, he argues that Mac OS had much easier discoverability. I have seen many apps where operations are hidden in right click menus that require the user to right click everything to figure out where it is. His arguments that swipes are confusing because they aren't discoverable. However, the closest equivalent to that would be the double click, click and hold, ctrl click, and middle click of PC's. All of those operations are not taught and a complete newbie who has never learned how to use computers will have to learn those commands, just like how they would have to learn swipes. His other points seem fine though, such as buttons just being text instead of buttons.
 
The hardware design aesthetics (not really the point of the article) are very sterile and functional. It's a simple and plain design. Fits in well in a Dr.s office. Nothing flashy, nothing stands out.

Software wise - I used to say it was perfect for people that knew little about technology. It was extremely simple, easy to use, easy to read. Great for older people, great for younger people. Now? They are trying to force more functionality into that same simple UI and changing things that shouldn't be changed. They are changing things visually by throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. Yea, it's supposed to be artsy, but it wasn't needed. They need more than just different pretty pictures and a different font...
 
soupcxan said:
iOS and iTunes have declined markedly in ease of use and reliability over the last few years; if there was a better option I would buy it, but android is even worse...
Click to expand...

Oh man, trying to use iTunes now is probably one of the most frustrating experiences in technology today. I preferred my old MP3 player that was some Asian brand, but I all I had to do was quite literally click-and-drag songs on to it.
 
DukenukemX said:
I'll give you one example, THE QWERTY PHONE! Give it back already you freakin Apple sheep wanna bees. If I wanted an Apple iPhone I would have bought one.

nokia-n950-1200x630-c.jpg
Click to expand...

The reason they don't make a bunch of qwerty phones is that the last batch like the Samsung Blackjack, Moto Droid series and others didn't sell very well. Most people don't want the extra bulk for a tiny keyboard. I personally don't like them because the keys are so small that I have to spend a lot of effort not to hit more than one at a time and I can type faster on the onscreen keyboard. Maybe they're better if you have tiny hands, I wouldn't know.

But if the Priv sells a lot of units we'll see a keyboard comeback. I don't see that happening but I've been wrong before.
 
Only people that don't understand design or are afraid Apple does it better than they can bitch about Apple Design.

Has to be the most copied manufacturer on the planet design wise. There's a reason for that.
 
Ur_Mom said:
The hardware design aesthetics (not really the point of the article) are very sterile and functional. It's a simple and plain design. Fits in well in a Dr.s office. Nothing flashy, nothing stands out.

Software wise - I used to say it was perfect for people that knew little about technology. It was extremely simple, easy to use, easy to read. Great for older people, great for younger people. Now? They are trying to force more functionality into that same simple UI and changing things that shouldn't be changed. They are changing things visually by throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. Yea, it's supposed to be artsy, but it wasn't needed. They need more than just different pretty pictures and a different font...
Click to expand...

I agree. It was most notable with the recent Apple Music update. They took the functional iPod app and made it complicated and unintutive. They fixed it slightly with the recent 9.1 update...but it still isn't on par with what use to be. I don't understand why they decided to update that portion of the app.

That's honestly the only real problem I've had with the recent changes. I mean, they finally included a delete all in the email app. I'm surprised it took that all. The pressure sensitive stuff is pretty great.
 
TechLarry said:
Only people that don't understand design or are afraid Apple does it better than they can bitch about Apple Design.

Has to be the most copied manufacturer on the planet design wise. There's a reason for that.
Click to expand...

Really though? A lot of manufacturers copy their aesthetics because they have a huge cult-like following. Not sure if it's a design thing. But I do agree, they used to nail design pretty well.

Now it seems they've stopped innovating:

Everyone Has Large Screen Phone -> Apple Finally Launches One, their # advertising feature (long press) has been present in Android for years (Air under Samsung brand).

Everyone Has a watch out -> Apple Finally releases one.

3 Generations of Surface w/pen -> iPad Pro

Not saying I don't expect a company to jump into hot markets, it's just they've become incredibly slow to react. They used to mainly push a market, now they're reacting to it.
 
DukenukemX said:
I'll give you one example, THE QWERTY PHONE! Give it back already you freakin Apple sheep wanna bees. If I wanted an Apple iPhone I would have bought one.

nokia-n950-1200x630-c.jpg
Click to expand...

I actually find on screen keyboards better to type on than the tiny physical ones.

With an on-screen keyboard it registers the center of contact as my touch point, so with my big sausage fingers I can still type on small surfaces.

I had a blackberry curve once (provided to me at work, I used it twice, then stuck it in my desk drawer and never touched it again). it was simply impossible to type on. The buttons were so small, that I'd either press two when I wanted to press one, and the worst was when trying to type a 7 as I recall, as you needed to press the alt and Z buttons at the same time, which was damned near impossible.

I remember my exes LG VX9800 being a little bit better, but then again, back then I was comparing to sending messages on my Motorola Razr with a standard numerical keypad, so it may only have stood out by comparison.

Anyway, while I love my physical keyboards on my desktop (in fact I insist on using IBM style mechanical keyboards) when it comes to smaller form factors, if you have large hands like me, I find them damned near impossible to use.
 
HockeyJon said:
Oh man, trying to use iTunes now is probably one of the most frustrating experiences in technology today. I preferred my old MP3 player that was some Asian brand, but I all I had to do was quite literally click-and-drag songs on to it.
Click to expand...

I had a zune and while i loved the audio quality it was also a pain. I can't remember the brand of mp3 I had before but it was i think 20-40gb and same thing, drag and drop into a folder to play.
 
I still absolutely love my Mac Pro and the way it's designed. It's big, and it's heavy as hell, but nothing was easier than pulling out a tray to add memory -- or a tray for the hard drive, then fasten a few screws, and I upgraded my storage. I don't have to fuss with cable management.

I do not like the design of the new Mac Pro at all.
 
Spidey329 said:
Now it seems they've stopped innovating:

Everyone Has Large Screen Phone -> Apple Finally Launches One, their # advertising feature (long press) has been present in Android for years (Air under Samsung brand).

Everyone Has a watch out -> Apple Finally releases one.

3 Generations of Surface w/pen -> iPad Pro

Not saying I don't expect a company to jump into hot markets, it's just they've become incredibly slow to react. They used to mainly push a market, now they're reacting to it.
Click to expand...

Is that really any different from how they've always been though?

They've never been a particularly innovative company, instead focusing on whatever others were doing, and just giving it better industrial design and marketing it to a cult like following.

I mean, they often are credited with coming up with the current paradigm in computer GUI's with the launch of the Lisa, and later Macintosh, but that was really just bought from Xerox PARC. They applied some polish, but they didn't innovate shit.

Then we have the iPod. Another "innovative" Apple product, except for all the other mp3 players that had been on the market for years. Again, they took someone else's concept, applied Industrial design, made it shiny and marketed it to a cult following to great success.

Just about everything they have done has gone like this.

The iPhone MAY have been slightly different. There really was nothing else like it when it launched, but candy-bar form factor touch screen phones was where the entire market was headed already. Android had already been under development for a year as well. They just beat the competition to the punch. The iPad was just a big iPhone without - well - a phone.

Apple pay, iPad pro, larger iPhone 6's, etc. etc. etc. You name it, all just copied others features and then adding some polish and marketing to make it "magical"...

Apple is a big sham. They succeed only through their Church of Scientology-styled reality distortion field, ripping off the true believers and raking in the the huge markups.

Their only real core competencies are Industrial Design and Marketing. Everything else is second or third rate.
 
Quix said:
I personally don't like them because the keys are so small that I have to spend a lot of effort not to hit more than one at a time and I can type faster on the onscreen keyboard. Maybe they're better if you have tiny hands, I wouldn't know..
Click to expand...

I hear that a lot, from a lot of people and all I can say is this as a response of some kind:

if you can honestly type faster on a keyboard that has no physical buttons, is one-half the width (typically less), and with onscreen non-physical buttons that are roughly one-half (and sometimes one-quarter) the size of the physical keyboard on a phone like that Nokia N950 that was pictured above, I'd say something is terribly wrong someplace, and I stress the word terribly.

In the long run it's not about having small hands, it's about physical dexterity more than anything else. I have fairly large hands: I'm 6'6" tall (not that that matters), and if I spread my hand wide (like I was trying to palm a basketball or something) the distance from the tip of a thumb to the tip of the pinkie on the same hand is roughly 10" so the spread is considerable - I do typing on my BlackBerry Z10's onscreen keyboard with just one thumb more often than not (the swipe gesture to complete words kicks ass - I don't mean "Swype" either because I could never get the hang of that type of input, I mean how the BlackBerry BB10 OS keyboard works: it provides the word suggestions and you accept them by a quick flick or swipe upwards on the key. I've found BlackBerry's word suggestions and recognition to be the best of any keyboards or OSes out there and now it's available for any Android device as well (has to be ripped from the Play Market since it's designed to install on just the Priv at the moment).

But typing faster on a device like the Nokia N950's onscreen non-physical keyboard faster than the actual landscape mode physical keyboard with some decent physical buttons... that's a new one on me. :)
 
JustinCorrigible said:
I still absolutely love my Mac Pro and the way it's designed. It's big, and it's heavy as hell, but nothing was easier than pulling out a tray to add memory -- or a tray for the hard drive, then fasten a few screws, and I upgraded my storage. I don't have to fuss with cable management.
Click to expand...

Those were one of the few apple products I could have seen myself using.

These days - however - RAM is soldered to motherboards, you have to use suction cups and a heat gun to lift the glass off of your iMac in order to replace the hard drive (when a door on the back would have been just fine) etc. etc.

JustinCorrigible said:
I do not like the design of the new Mac Pro at all.
Click to expand...

You don't like the Dunkin Donuts Trash Can?

22549251947_d92d8b4cff_b.jpg


:p
 
Once upon a time iTunes was okay, but they started to bury functionality in favor of a "cleaner" interface. People aren't used to right clicking a whole lot in a typical Mac application, and I feel that a lot of right click functionality is something they started to implement more recently. For example, how am I supposed to know that in order to enable repeat, I have to right click the shuffle button? How is that intuitive?
 
Meh ... the guys who wrote the article are designers from the 80s ... and it appears they are still stuck in that decade.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041967458 said:
Those were one of the few apple products I could have seen myself using.
Click to expand...

I will never get rid of my Pro, unless it literally up and dies. Even then, I'll salvage what I can. I was not an Apple fan by any means, but goddamn if that machine didn't start to make me one. Used them for video editing and animation in college, and just loved them.

Zarathustra[H];1041967458 said:
You don't like the Dunkin Donuts Trash Can?

22549251947_d92d8b4cff_b.jpg


:p
Click to expand...

I want to like it, I just can't.
 
JustinCorrigible said:
I will never get rid of my Pro, unless it literally up and dies. Even then, I'll salvage what I can. I was not an Apple fan by any means, but goddamn if that machine didn't start to make me one. Used them for video editing and animation in college, and just loved them.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd probably hold on to something like that up until Apple drops support from OS X for it. Once it no longer receives updates and patches, I might consider installing Linux on it.
 
HockeyJon said:
Oh man, trying to use iTunes now is probably one of the most frustrating experiences in technology today. I preferred my old MP3 player that was some Asian brand, but I all I had to do was quite literally click-and-drag songs on to it.
Click to expand...

iTunes. I love my iPod. I HATE iTunes with a passion. I have to start from scratch every time I want to update the music on there. It can never just accept my library the way it is or auto update the new songs that I put in the folders. So, go to sync and "Library is missing. All songs will be removed from this device". Same if I have 2 PC's. Can only use the 1 to add music. :(

So, I just have a shit ton of songs on there and rarely switch them out. Too cumbersome.
 
Ur_Mom said:
iTunes. I love my iPod. I HATE iTunes with a passion. I have to start from scratch every time I want to update the music on there. It can never just accept my library the way it is or auto update the new songs that I put in the folders. So, go to sync and "Library is missing. All songs will be removed from this device". Same if I have 2 PC's. Can only use the 1 to add music. :(

So, I just have a shit ton of songs on there and rarely switch them out. Too cumbersome.
Click to expand...

I feel like I have done that when trying to make a playlist or something for a trip, I get there and realize somehow all my songs are gone from my phone or nothing was changed at all. Itunes just doesnt make sense to me.

"syncing' seemed broken. I had my phone wiped at some point either a restore or downgrade, dont remember. But I tried to sync songs from computer and it wiped all the songs off my computer. smh

Love my iphone, just wish I could drop files in a folder for mp3s though.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041967433 said:
I mean, they often are credited with coming up with the current paradigm in computer GUI's with the launch of the Lisa, and later Macintosh, but that was really just bought from Xerox PARC. They applied some polish, but they didn't innovate shit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the GUI wasn't innovative. What was innovative was they got the price of a GUI-based computer down to the IBM PC price range . They had to castrate it with the 512x384 small panel, 1 color, and the 128k ram barely made it serviceable, but it was an impressive leap.

Then we have the iPod. Another "innovative" Apple product, except for all the other mp3 players that had been on the market for years. Again, they took someone else's concept, applied Industrial design, made it shiny and marketed it to a cult following to great success.
Click to expand...

It was the first mp3 player small enough to take anywhere without sacrificing capacity or battery life. It featured a new 1.8" hard drive that was tiny compared to the 2.5" Nomad jukebox of the day, had similar capacity and used less power. It also had Firewire to get around the speed issues of USB 1.1, which was horrendously slow. The large 32MB buffer allowed buffering of multiple songs, allowing them to save power only spinning up the drive briefly, and get 10 hours of playback. All for just $400.

The Nomad Jukebox (only on the market for a YEAR at that point, not *YEARS*), by comparison, only buffered 5 minutes of data (roughly 5MB buffer). It was lucky to get four hours off of four standard AA batteries. It also cost $500 for all that!

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/creative-jukebox.html

Sure, they eventually standardized on USB 2, but at the time there was nothing else like it. Expensive? Sure, but there's always a market for high-end gadgets that actually deliver on promises.

And what did their competitors continue to do during the IPod's reign? They continued to use the same old shitty 2.5" drives, and assumed that people wanted higher capacity.
 
Quix said:
The reason they don't make a bunch of qwerty phones is that the last batch like the Samsung Blackjack, Moto Droid series and others didn't sell very well. Most people don't want the extra bulk for a tiny keyboard. I personally don't like them because the keys are so small that I have to spend a lot of effort not to hit more than one at a time and I can type faster on the onscreen keyboard. Maybe they're better if you have tiny hands, I wouldn't know.

But if the Priv sells a lot of units we'll see a keyboard comeback. I don't see that happening but I've been wrong before.
Click to expand...

The Blackjack and Priv are bad QWERTY phones because the specs suck and the keyboard sucks just as much. The Droid looks great except that it's old, I mean really old. Also Verizon only phones which is just no.

Maybe if the industry stopped making terrible QWERTY phones then maybe someone would buy it? Give me the HTC G2 physical keyboard with specs of the Asus Zenfone 2.
 
Apple have painted themselves into a corner design wise. Especially with the PC division.

Their whole mantra of reduce and refine had reached it's tipping point a couple of years or more ago. Now they have no choice but to remove actual useful functionality to bring out a 'new design' to distinguish itself from the previous years very similar design and the year before that.

Their products visually to me are stale and boring. I know what the Macbook Pro 2016 will look like and the 2017 and the 2018. It's just not interesting. Plus those lovely aluminium cases are too damn heavy to lug around all day.

How about some colour? How about some new textures? How about some new lighter case materials?

Ives needs the boot or to step back for a while.
 
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