Apple design posts

Over at Business Week, Helen Walters has an interesting summary of a presentation given by Michael Lopp at SXSW on Apple's design process. Lopp is a senior engineering manager at Apple and gives a sneak peek at the process that Apple uses to bring such great products to the market.

Particularly interesting to me is the idea of the paired design meetings. Evidently each team has two design meetings each week. At the first meeting they're invited to "go crazy" and be creative in coming up with unusual ideas and approaches, while at the second meeting they have to get down to brass tacks and figure out how to actually implement some of those crazy ideas. It sounds like a great way to foster creativity, but also to make sure that there's enough practicality that things actually get shipped. In any case, it's worth a read if you're intrigued by the Apple design process.

[via MacVolPlace]

Daniel Turner set out to write an article for the MIT Technology Review on the design process that went into the iPhone but, perhaps unsurprisingly, he ran into a wall at Apple. Instead he has penned this nice look at the overall Apple design process, drawing on interviews with former Apple employees as well as folks at Frog Design who have worked with Apple. There are some interesting tidbits comparing the way Apple does things versus other companies. For instance, instead of asking what a factory can do and then designing the product around it, Apple instead tends to make the factories re-tool to meet its requirements. From the beginning Apple has spent more time and money on design leading (as we well know) to superior products. Perhaps most unsurprising of all is Turner's conclusion that this all leads back to one man: Steve Jobs. Turner quotes a former Apple executive Don Norman as saying. "Jobs is a dictator, but with good taste. He is good and driven to the perfect experience. He doesn't want good design; he wants great design."

Though the conclusions are unsurprising there are some good stories here and anybody interested in the Apple design process should head over to Technology Review.

[via MacSlash]

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Apple has removed the obvious green "online" indicator dot and accompanying hole that used to be just to the right of the iSight lens hole on the MacBook Pro and replaced it with a subtle integrated green LED just under the surface of the bezel that only appears when the iSight is engaged.

Nice touch. It's tiny little things like this that really set Apple apart when it comes to product design. Almost makes you want to give them a pass on some of the far more serious quality control issues they're having these days...

More pics on nobilog.

Thanks, Dane!