When Did Apple's Obsession with Design Stagnate? | Hacker News Reader

When Did Apple's Obsession with Design Stagnate?

mirz.ai

15 pointszahirbmirza34 comments

The article complains about Apple's notes app, but doesn't actually say what specifically is wrong with it (Bad Design? Where? How?).

Then, it turns out to be an ad for the author's notes app, which presumably has "good design", but we aren't told what is better about it.

On top of that, the article has some clickbait title which is just engagement bait for people who aren't gonna read the article.

This article is a microcosm of everything that's wrong with the Internet today: Clickbait, engagement farming, and ads, all rolled into one single, forgettable waste of time.

The only good thing I have to say about the article is that it was short.

Do you think Notes is as good as it could be, in terms of the marriage of aesthetics and function?

My app presents just an alternative, its free, and there are screenshots on the app store. It is my response to my own criticisms of Apple. You can decide for yourself if you think I have achieved any goals. There is a website for the app if you are android.

But, my bigger frustration with Apple remains, that it no longer seems to prioritise the miraculous simplicity that obsessive and meticulous design can bring. It has become, as I said in a previous reply, the WhatsApp of the computer world. Play it safe. Don't upset ANYONE apart from shareholders who "know" what works.

The title at hacker News is not the title of the article.

The answer to the "when" question is of course when they gave up the curved iPhone 3s design for the iPhone 4 which felt like a sharp brick and had antenna problems but only if you held it in an unapproved way. Oh, and God, now I'm hahaving traumatic flashbacks to the bad camera on the iPhone 4. I gave up after my third one and the Apple employee told me I was just thinking about it wrong.

I remember how much I liked my old iPhone 4. I liked the straight edges and crisp look and feel. I upgraded eventually to an iPhone 6 and hated the roundness - the design language of the phone said one thing to me, and that was "drop me on the ground and break me". I got a case for only minutes after I bought it so it would have a chance of survival.

Currently on an iPhone 12 mini and happy both that the clean straight edges came back, and that Apple's still making the occasional small phone.

That was some poor attention to detail and quality control. I had to get a replacement iphone 4.

Every time I read something like this, three words loop through my brain: "rich Corinthian leather".

I love clever marketing. I wish I was a more clever marketer.

Heard the term, but had never known the history. Thanks for mentioning it!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_leather

"military grade aluminum" might be the hardware equivalent

Does anyone else remember being evangelical about literally every Apple design decision?

It’s kinda funny how it happened. Maybe 10 years ago Apple fanbois could not admit that Apple could do anything wrong. Maybe 2 years ago I was finding Macers were no longer fanatical about MacOS and were recognizing the things I always thought were wrong with it and in fact it was easy to draw out bitter complaints about various quality problems with it. (I am amazed at the M4 Mini hardware, the software is adequate but… meh)

When I first saw Liquid Glass I had just gotten my first iPhone and was in that flush of attraction and thought “that looks pretty good” but there has been such an outpouring of scorn for it that I’m pretty shocked.

Maybe. I think there is some real insight in this viewpoint.

I think there was a time, long ago, that I justifiably believed that some of Apple's design was forward thinking. But, I think they are now more like WhatsApp, who apparently have a unit that is charged with ensuring that the UI does not change for fear of unsettling users.

I think this translates to - 'Apple has to play it safe as it is too big a company to make risky changes'. Ie, it can no longer do revolutionary things for fear of a collapse in faith of the consumer masses rather than the avidly convinced first adapters.

When you’re the underdog you can do underdog things. People love and expect underdog things. But Apple’s underdog days are long gone. Stability is now Apple’s M.O. Liquid Glass is now what Apple passes off as innovation.

yes, i think sadly so.

But there's nothing wrong with that? Computers are tools. Software is a tool. Unless a change is absolutely improving the user experience, then it shouldn't be made just for the sake of change.

Imagine picking up a drill and it updates and now the trigger is somewhere new. And they've taken away the sped settings in the interest of simplicity?

Apple used to invent a new and better Drill. I agree, design for the sake of things is a pain. Just think touch screens in Cars (rolling eyes emoji). That is bad design disguised as evolution of interaction. New better design is like invention. Obscure until discovered, then seemingly obvious when found.

for software design, i'd expect that launching the app store played a big role.

the app store ceded a lot of the experience to other developers that apple couldn't control or hold to their standards, so it's not a surprise that they responded by just kind of giving up and chasing flashy aesthetics in order to compete.

it's one thing to belabor every little design detail when you know that you are shaping a holistic experience, but if you know that the user is going to spend half their time using some janky app that you didn't make, it's hard to convince yourself to spend a ton of time making your half better.

interesting.

"Obsession with Design" is a major red flag for any person/company. Someone obsessed with design fetishizes meaningless details (mm of keyboard thickness) even when it hurts usefulness (keyboard reliability).

The title of the article is now "The Design Vacuum: How Apple Lost Its Aesthetic Soul to Pure and profitable Functional".

Focus on "aesthetics" is equally as concerning when divorced from any meaningful customer value.

Design and aesthetics should be aligned for optimum function. Perfect design will almost always align perfectly with something that is aesthetic. Look at the form function of most phones, design and aesthetics have reached a singularity. Compare to the apple mouse, superficially ok, great superficial looks, but poorly designed as it does not do the job as well as a well designed product should.

The iPhone's invention was the result of deeply intentional design.

I do agree somewhat however; it is a pointless obsession to put aesthetics over function. The macbook 12 inch's keyboard is a case that proves your point.

I think notion’s big failure is how slow it is. I prefer the features of Notion, but end up sticking with Obsidian, because it has such strong performance.

I like Obsidian. I prefer it to notion too. I think like Obsidian. But, there has to be a more aesthetic option than Obsidian that does not involve Notion's online and therefore limiting and slow database architecture.

I'm partial to Obsidian's stock aesthetics, but if you prefer the notion look there are plugins like make.md and hundreds of themes.

I actually quite like Apple Notes. Then again, I’m in it for a note taking app not an aesthetic experience. I’m also not a tech visionary I guess.

Again, I agree, I like it too. But so much about Apple has been making the aesthetics easy. Just look at how obsessive their Human Interface Guidelines are. They are intended for developers to ensure that good design is integral to how a user experiences software.

I think it’s not that they stagnated on design. I think they stagnated on caring about customers. That’s why there are so many annoying little flaws all over their products now. Apple at its peak would not tolerate that. But they also have never truly had the ability to listen to customers. Try asking for help in their forums - you’ll get a bunch of fanboys who admonish you for not doing things the Apple way instead of helping you. If that’s the foundation of the company, any lapse in caring about customers will be even more painful.

Wow, interesting.

Notes is probably one of favorite apple apps of all time...

Notes is awesome. It could be even better. But, it is because of this exact and common thought, people in Apple are too scared to think different.

How important is design if literally everybody and their mother uses Apple devices?

Yes. This is the exact consequence of complacency breeding stagnation. It is like Nokia, blackberry etx.. Everyone used a Brick phone because nothing was 10x better. Then iPhone came along. Notion, Obsidian...etc they are all 5, maybe 6x better.

Note. Design is essential if you are as obsessively critical as I am.

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