Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

http://fastcodesign.com/3030923/4-myths-about-apple-design-from-an-ex-apple-designer

by busterc • 12 years ago

62 36 12 years ago

jarrett• 12 years ago

The part about being dedicated enough to donate weekends and vacation time struck me. I'm of multiple minds about that mentality when it's applied to a large company. On the one hand, there's something beautiful about having a day job so meaningful you'll happily do more of it for free. On the other hand, I wonder if there's something exploitative about the following situation: Both employees and owners give over their lives, employees get satisfaction, and owners get satisfaction plus the financial rewards of the lives everyone donated. On the other other hand, if the employees enter into that deal consciously and happily, then maybe nobody loses. On the other other other hand, maybe there's also an element of brainwashing--which can, in principle, cause people to consciously and happily enter into exploitative relationships. Clearly, this is a complicated issue, and I don't feel at all qualified to pass moral judgment on it one way or another.

j10t• 12 years ago

I am not exceptionally smart, but I am a "hard worker." I often work nights and weekends, and I don't hate it.

As a result of my efforts, I am more skilled, and consequently enjoy a more lucrative position than I otherwise would. If I were a mediocre developer I could earn half as much as I do, or less. My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

syntern• 12 years ago

Family? Kids? Working at night and weekends quickly disappear once you have life in your work-life balance...

opendais2• 12 years ago

My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

No offense, but if they were investments in yourself I think you'd be either:

A) Moonlight for $$

B) Working on a startup idea you were thinking about [you are on HN after all]

The skill gain from doing stuff for your employer for $0, at least to me, doesn't seem equal to the return from things that my benefit me financially one day.

bluthru• 12 years ago

On the other other hand, if the employees enter into that deal consciously and happily, then maybe nobody loses.

Society loses. Friends and family lose. Health is probably compromised. Other businesses lose from the employees not being able to spend their money as frequently.

Maybe I wouldn't be so critical of it if we in American had the same amount of days off as other first world countries.

CanSpice• 12 years ago

The key point is "consciously and happily". Different people have different situations going on in their life. If you're a 23-year old single employee, you might decide that you are willing to work 60 hours a week because you really like your work. If you're a 38-year old married employee with kids, you might decide that you're only willing to work 40 hours a week because you value time with your family. Having a company that realizes that there's a difference between people, and not everybody has the flexibility or willingness to put in 60-hour weeks, that's the key.

snowwrestler4• 12 years ago

Most people are motivated by more than money. Working in product development at a place like Apple, or Google, or Amazon, etc, gives you a chance to work with very smart, accomplished people. It gives you license to do great work and maybe push some envelopes with what is possible in your field. It gives you a platform to have a major impact on society. It makes other people say "wow" when they hear where you work, or what product you helped create.

For some people that is a form of motivation, and even a form of compensation. Doing graphic design at a PR agency for a cereal campaign, even if it pays more money and gives more vacation time, might be less attractive to people than a harder, more demanding job that confers the above benefits.

It's also important to look at the entire career. Busting her ass at Apple for 6 years might set up a young designer to get taken very seriously if she decides to move to another company, or start her own. That would be less true if she was a junior designer working hourly for Brauny paper towel company (or whatever).

fruithunter• 12 years ago

"Busting her ass at Apple for 6 years might set up a young designer to get taken very seriously if she decides to move to another company, or start her own."

No. Don't take a job under the premise that it has good experience and will set you up for a later higher paying job with another company. That's a a myth. Get better at negotiating your salary now.

You should never take the mindset to to defer your salary in exchange for experience. Get paid what you're worth.

vacri2• 12 years ago

It gives you a platform to have a major impact on society.

Major? Can you give some examples where a line engineer at one of the big companies has personally done something through their work that has had a major impact on society? "Wow, you work at a cool place" is small talk and prestige, not something that has a societal impact; something that inherently changes the way people interact with and/or perceive each other.

norswap• 12 years ago

But is the work really meaningful? I suppose it depends on the definition, and it's probably a subjective matter anyway.

_random_• 12 years ago

"MYTH #1 Apple Has The Best Designers" - don't want to be a troll, but it's enough to say "iOS7" as an anwser (e.g. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ios-7)

Gracana• 12 years ago

I don't think it makes a difference whether or not you want to be a troll when you're writing troll comments.

godDLL• 12 years ago

I see what you did there.

Retr0spectrum• 12 years ago

That site works great on mobile devices! http://i.imgur.com/W9ouzFS.jpg

graeme• 12 years ago

Anyone know what that framework is? I switched my chrome display to 150% in order to push my laptop further back.

That framework breaks unless 100% is used.

nsxwolf2• 12 years ago

I see this everywhere now and it's driving me nuts. Who thought using up that much space on a mobile device was a good idea?

normloman• 12 years ago

Verizon probably thinks it's a good idea. Their banner ad dominates the layout.

k-mcgrady2• 12 years ago

Try turning your device to portrait mode.

EpicEng• 12 years ago

I was about to post the same thing. for a site focused on design they did a pretty crappy job on the mobile end.

nsxwolf2• 12 years ago

MYTH #5: Steve Jobs was a vegan.

I knew about the unagi. But salmon, too?

k-mcgrady2• 12 years ago

From reading his biography it sounded like he experimented with lots of different diets. And it didn't seem like he chose them for any reason other than health.

marincounty• 12 years ago

I wish he went went for western medicine! I miss the guy. I see his yacht and he never got to use it. I know it's trivial-- a rich guy not setting foot on his yacht, but Steve didn't seem like the typical rich dude. Anyways--his death reaffirmed just how short life is! I wish these companies would throw billions at cancer research instead of Apps?

Zelphyr• 12 years ago

Perhaps he was a pescatarvegan.

stcredzero2• 12 years ago

"For Apple, having a small, really focused organization made a lot of sense when Steve was there, because so many ideas came from Steve. So having a smaller group work on some of these ideas made sense," Kawano says. "As Apple shifted to much more of a company where there's multiple people at the top, I think it makes sense that they're growing the design team in interesting ways."

If anything turns out to be Apple's downfall, it is embodied in this paragraph. In most companies, to beat your competitors, you first have to defeat the other corporate divisions. The presence of Steve Jobs probably prevented this and resulted in a significant part of Apple's competitive advantage. The key here is not Steve Jobs per se, but that a single individual could champion particular ideas and see them through to completion without opposition and interference.

Amazon currently enjoys something like this, I suspect.

matwood• 12 years ago

That's a good point. Amazon and Apple are/were extensions of SJ and Bezos. For better or worse the companies did/do what they wanted. If they wanted X, then X is what happened political infighting be damned.

snowwrestler4• 12 years ago

Jobs did turn divisions against one another, as when considering whether to build the iPhone with iPod OS or OS X.

Jobs also permitted silos; for example under Jobs, iOS and OS X were largely separate teams. Cook seems to have taken a major step toward dissolving those silos by dismissing Scott Forestall and consolidating all design under Ive and all software under Federighi.

Based on the recent iOS and OS X previews, it looks like Apple divisions are working very well with one another right now.

stcredzero2• 12 years ago

Jobs did turn divisions against one another, as when considering whether to build the iPhone with iPod OS or OS X.

Jobs also permitted silos; for example under Jobs, iOS and OS X were largely separate teams.

Neither of those are counterexamples. While Jobs had different units compete, that competition was constructive in the sense of supplying multiple options which the leadership could then choose from. (Toyota also does this.) This is different from the passive-aggressive sabotage one often sees in big corporations.

Also, "silos" were used to foster new development. I suspect they were used to insulate groups from the passive-aggressive fratricide one sees in large corporations.

vellum• 12 years ago

OTOH, he had the power to make them play nice.

From Isaacson's book: he closely controlled all of his teams and pushed them to work as one cohesive and flexible company, with one profit-and-loss bottom line. “We don’t have ‘divisions’ with their own P&L,” said Tim Cook. “We run one P&L for the company.”

Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

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