Former Apple designers say that Apple has lost 'the fundamental principles of good design'

[Guest]

Two early Apple designers have written a piece on Co.Design chastising Apple's new design direction, which they claim puts elegance and visual simplicity over understandability and ease of use. Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, who was Apple's 66th employee and the writer of its first human interface guidelines, and Don Norman, Apple's user experience architect from 1993 to 1996, aren't holding back in the least.

 

"Apple is destroying design," the duo wrote, calling out their former employer for trading in the fundamental design principles the company once held for a new minimalistic approach. That new approach has manifested in a new font called San Fransisco, which many, including Norman and Tog consider to be too small:

 

No more. Now, although the products are indeed even more beautiful than before, that beauty has come at a great price. Gone are the fundamental principles of good design: discoverability, feedback, recovery, and so on. Instead, Apple has, in striving for beauty, created fonts that are so small or thin, coupled with low contrast, that they are difficult or impossible for many people with normal vision to read. We have obscure gestures that are beyond even the developer’s ability to remember. We have great features that most people don’t realize exist.

They also criticized Apple for things like not including a universal undo or back button, which is present on Android, having too many "hidden" gesture-based menus, and for pushing visual simplicity over usability testing in its new human interface guidelines for developers.

 

Good design should be attractive, pleasurable, and wonderful to use. But the wonderfulness of use requires that the device be understandable and forgiving. It must follow the basic psychological principles that give rise to a feeling of understanding, of control, of pleasure. These include discoverability, feedback, proper mapping, appropriate use of constraints, and, of course, the power to undo one’s operations. These are all principles we teach elementary students of interaction design. If Apple were taking the class, it would fail.

Norman and Tog state that Apple's design transgressions go far beyond the font on your phone, given Apple's vast influence over design culture, stating that Apple's choices could have reverberations in different industries like infrastructure and health care. "Apple is reinforcing the old, discredited idea that the designer’s sole job is to make things beautiful, even at the expense of providing the right functions, aiding understandability, and ensuring ease of use," they wrote.

 

Worse, other companies have followed in Apple’s path, equating design with appearance while forgetting the fundamental principles of good design. As a result, programmers rush to code without understanding the people who will use the products. Designers focus entirely on making it all look pretty. And executives get rid of user experience teams who want to help design the products properly and ensure the products are made usable during the design phase, not after manufacturing, coding, and release, when it is too late. These uninformed company executives assume all this up-front design research, prototyping, and testing clearly must slow down the development process. Nope. When done properly, it speeds things up by catching problems early, before coding even begins.

It should be noted that Norman and Tog didn't limit their design criticism to Apple. They also denounced Google Maps and Android for similar flaws. But when you're the biggest company in the world selling the most popular smartphone on the planet, the brunt of the blame lands at your feet.

 

While they do admit that Apple has succeeded at making its devices visually appealing, in their eyes that appeal has damped some potential complaints from users. "The product is beautiful! And fun. As a result, when people have difficulties, they blame themselves. Good for Apple. Bad for the customer."

 

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/16/9743996/apple-designer-interview-bruce-tog-tognazzini-don-norman

 

Well, now that Apple has changed a lot it looks like the old designers are criticizing Apple for the new direction it's heading towards

They even praise the newer Android designs that allow functionality and design to co-exist within the system

They also criticize Apple for trying to make other companies follow their designs to make them seem to have "originality"

 

This isn't the first time they criticized a company, but they threw the biggest punches at Apple with their new statements

[Jerakl]

Pre-Cook Apple is best Apple.

[connorpiper]

HA! They would love using Windows RT if iOS is difficult. 

[Dabombinable]

Pre-Cook Apple is best Apple.

Its just fapple now that he's taken over things.

[d3sl91]

[thekeemo]

HA! They would love using Windows RT if iOS is difficult.

that has disappeared you realize that right.

[Dabombinable]

And that's where I'd tell them bloody far from comfortable.

 

 

that has disappeared you realize that right.

Not on the Surface 2 RT tablets (which are actually quite good still)

[connorpiper]

that has disappeared you realize that right.

 

Nokia has a Win RT tablet too.

Windows for ARM is still a thing, with a Windows 10 for ARM coming soon.

[thekeemo]

Nokia has a Win RT tablet too.

Windows for ARM is still a thing, with a Windows 10 for ARM coming soon.

Nokia is also gone..

[connorpiper]

Nokia is also gone..

 

The tablet is still sold. 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/tablet/lumia2520/

[Dabombinable]

Nokia has a Win RT tablet too.

Windows for ARM is still a thing, with a Windows 10 for ARM coming soon.

I wonder if 8 RT will be upgraded to it-the battery life and performance is already but still......

[thekeemo]

The tablet is still sold. 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/tablet/lumia2520/

huh I thought it was just lumia now

[Sam Z Man]

Apples logic is to basically make it thinner by trading in battery life and nuking performance.

[petem]

Yea, well, Apple used to be by nerds for nerds, and the beauty of the OS was a huge draw for artistic types.  What artist wants to use an uninspiring hunk of plastic, no matter how ergonomic it is?  Welcome to high heels, Apple - they look great, but they have to, because they hurt like hell and no one would buy them otherwise

[RedRound2]

Apples logic is to basically make it thinner by trading in battery life and nuking performance.

 

nuking performance? Last time i checked Apple processors were topping the charts with measly dual core processors

And to be fair battery life is similar to most other phones, but when you consider that iPhone could potentially have the best battery life if it had a similar size batteries as competitors (2400-2800 mAh) then the iPhone would have been one of the most long lasting devices

[soaringchicken]

too much reading 5me

[NinerL]

Designers from 1993-1996 LOL? Apple was nearing bankruptcy in 1996, so much for their 'fundamental designs'.

[Guest]

Designers from 1993-1996 LOL? Apple was nearing bankruptcy in 1996, so much for their 'fundamental designs'. :D :D

They were the lead architects when Jobs left

 

Before the fall of Apple in 1996, they were responsible for the Mac interface and the other iOS interfaces we saw in iOS 4 and 5

They were also some of the few designers who created the first hi-res applications for the MacOS

And they were the ones who who created the atomic clock (the clock in your device changes according to location)

They also introduced the drag and drop solutions for iOS and Mac

 

They do have fundamental designs, it just so happens that they were in the wrong era

 

Note: One of them teaches designers who now work in Google and Microsoft

[Castdeath97]

I would always take what former employees or ex employees with a grain of salt, they usually have a grudge against their former company.

[Sam Z Man]

nuking performance? Last time i checked Apple processors were topping the charts with measly dual core processors

And to be fair battery life is similar to most other phones, but when you consider that iPhone could potentially have the best battery life if it had a similar size batteries as competitors (2400-2800 mAh) then the iPhone would have been one of the most long lasting devices

There laptops are shit

[Nineshadow]

[Tech Enthusiast]

Pre-Cook Apple is best Apple.

 

I am saddend by this, but i actually second this.

 

Apple used to be great and had awesome products for the time. Nowadays i feel like everything apple has does not come with enough positive to offsett all the crazy restrictions. Already installed Windows 10 on my MacBookAir and won't change back,... actually will get a Surface Book as a replacement once it is available in the EU.

Also changed from an iPhone to a Galaxy Edge Plus and not looking back (much).

 

Yes Apple still has some HUGE points (Siri is far superior to other voice assistants, geolocations on android just plain out suck and google maps is a far weaker map then apple maps), but they are dwindeling for years now. Google is catching up where they are behind, but apple is not catching up where THEY are behind. 

 

Again: Used to be a huge fan (not a fanboy, not all was good!), but i also used to be ok with all the drawbacks due to the great stuff they made. But nowadays... everyone does the great stuff, but only Apple keeps the crazy restrictions.

[Dabombinable]

I am saddend by this, but i actually second this.

 

Apple used to be great and had awesome products for the time. Nowadays i feel like everything apple has does not come with enough positive to offsett all the crazy restrictions. Already installed Windows 10 on my MacBookAir and won't change back,... actually will get a Surface Book as a replacement once it is available in the EU.

Also changed from an iPhone to a Galaxy Edge Plus and not looking back (much).

 

Yes Apple still has some HUGE points (Siri is far superior to other voice assistants, geolocations on android just plain out suck and google maps is a far weaker map then apple maps), but they are dwindeling for years now. Google is catching up where they are behind, but apple is not catching up where THEY are behind. 

 

Again: Used to be a huge fan (not a fanboy, not all was good!), but i also used to be ok with all the drawbacks due to the great stuff they made. But nowadays... everyone does the great stuff, but only Apple keeps the crazy restrictions.

They've also had a decline in product quality.

[You_are_a_cunt]

In other news, the Earth isn't flat.

[Nineshadow]

I am saddend by this, but i actually second this.

 

Yup.

 

Still, I believe Google Now is better.

 

 

Video :