Comment by whycome
1 year ago
The context for this thread is about keeping persons on even when they are either no longer adding value, or even potentially detracting. In Ive's case, he absolutely created many successful aspects of Apples design language. But, he also put an over emphasis on minimalist design over function. The butterfly keyboards are one example. Was the removal of the ESC key something that happened on his design watch? The reduction of ports on their highest end pro models? Those are design decisions that have been undone as Apple realigns with the actual needs of its users rather than trying to dictate how they should use their hardware.
Exactly. When Ive ran out of Dieter Rams designs to rip off, it became clear that he only had two "ideas:"
Actually, I can think of one more idea he had:
As far as "design language" goes, I don't know which parts of it Ive was responsible for, but a lot of it sucked and continues to do so. Secret menus, peek-a-boo UI that doesn't exist unless you happen to roll the cursor across it... or plug something in...
One of my favorite Apple UI blunders was the iTunes control that disappeared if you didn't have an iPod plugged in... but controlled what happened when you DID plug it in: "Sync on connect," which was enabled by default.
Guess what happened when your hard drive went bad (or suffered some mass deletion), you replaced it, and then you plugged your iPod in?