Design Like Apple: Seven Principles For Creating Insanely Great Products, Services, and Experiences

214 Pages·2012·4.66 MB·English

by  John Edson

Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Apple, design, and Steve Jobs.
Chapter 1: Design Makes All the Difference: Beauty, ingenuity, and
charisma create a unique competitive advantage.
THE SIREN SONG OF TECHNOLOGY
BEAUTY
INGENUITY
CHARISMA
SUMMARY
Chapter 2: Design the Organization: Nurture taste, talent, and a design
culture.
TASTE
TALENT
CULTURE
SUMMARY
Chapter 3: The Product Is the Marketing: Great products sell
themselves.
MESSAGE
QUALITY
REPETITION
SUMMARY
Chapter 4: Design Is Systems Thinking: Product and context are one.
SYSTEM DESIGN
CREATING EXPERIENCES
PERPETUAL PLATFORMS
SUMMARY
Chapter 5: Design Out Loud: Protoype to perfection.
LET'S GET PHYSICAL
PROTOTYPE AND THE OBJECT
PROTOTYPE AND THE WORKSPACE
CROWDSOURCED PROTOTYPING
NEAR-LIFE EXPERIENCES
SUMMARY
Chapter 6: Design Is for People: Connect with your customer.
A HUMAN CENTERED ETHOS: EMPATHY
DESIGN RESEARCH
DESIGN FOR SOMEONE, BUT NOT FOR
EVERYONE
SUMMARY
Chapter 7: Design with Conviction: Commit to a unique voice.
SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL
CREATE YOUR OWN VOICE
CONVICTION
SUMMARY
Design Like Apple: Bring it all together.
Index

Copyright © 2012 by LUNAR Design, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
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To the memory of an insanely great family Robert, Ana-Maria, Samantha, and
Veronica
Acknowledgments
The principal source for what I know about design comes from an exceptionally
fortunate career that I have had at LUNAR working alongside some of the most
amazingly creative and brilliant people in the world of product development. Jeff
Smith and Gerard Furbershaw founded and built a singular firm that is as
amazing for its creative output as it is for its ability to retain employees. Few
companies engender the kind of loyalty that LUNAR does, thanks to the
commitment of Jeff and Gerard to an organization that values people and
relationships as much as creative excellence and financial performance. I have
worked for and with them for two amazing decades. Thanks, guys, for a
company worth the years.
Jeff Smith also deserves credit for articulating the beauty–ingenuity–charisma
framework that I write about in this book, with input and help from many superb
contributors, including Prasad Kaipa, Jeff Salazar, Ken Wood, Becky Brown,
Nirmal Sethia, Roman Gebhard, Matthis Hamann, and me.
My thanks to the crew of early Apple employees who helped me reconstruct
the formative days of the company and the genesis of the Apple design culture:
Randy Battat, Mike Looney, Clement Mok, Joy Mountford, Larry Tesler, and
John Zeisler. Special thanks to Bill Dresselhaus, one of the first product
designers at Apple and a client and colleague, for his help in this effort and his
interest in me and my career over the years. Many people helped me understand
the design process and culture of design at Apple in more recent years, including
Tony Fadell and a number of others who asked to remain anonymous.
Thanks to Josh Handy at Method Products and to Albert Shum at Microsoft
for your openness in discussing what design means to your companies. Uday
Dandavate helped inform and expand the ideas about design research. Thanks to
John Paul for the rich discussion on managing functionality, quality, and
schedule and to Ken Wood, Misha Cornes, and Nathan Shedroff for helping me
frame this book and encouraging ideas along the way. Thanks to Helen Walters
for motivating me to tackle this project in the first place.
This beautiful book would not have been possible without my colleagues at
LUNAR who created the outstanding design, led by art director Kenny Hopper
and book designer Mary Shadley. Thanks to Kevin Wong who devised the cover
art concept, and to designers Anna Kwon and Gritchelle Fallesgon for collecting
and creating imagery used throughout the book, and to Carly Lane and Jonathan
Cofer for the design of the project website. Danielle Guttman was invaluable in
researching and coordinating a surprising array of logistics.
My writing partner, Ernest Beck, has been a crucial critic during the
prototyping and refinement of this book, an optimistic guide when I've had my
moments of panic, and a tolerant colleague during my eleventh hour obsessing.
Thanks. And much gratitude goes to Richard Narramore and the consummate
professionals at John Wiley & Sons, Inc., who entrusted me with this book and
remained patient throughout the process.
To my family, friends, and colleagues, thank you for tolerating my absences,
both physical and emotional, during the many hours of devotion to this project.
Everyone at LUNAR has been extraordinarily supportive while carrying the
extra load—and some have gone the extra mile.
Thanks to Mark Dziersk for stepping into my empty shoes and for reading the
manuscript. Erik Hansen deserves a shout-out for the many years of friendship
through a number of life challenges and achievements, including this project.
Special thanks go to Frank and Terry for your persistent support.
This book would not have been possible without my family. For taking up the
slack and for believing deeply in me, my wife and best friend, Megan, deserves
the lion's share of credit and recognition for this book. I love you. Jack, for your
bottomless stores of playful creativity, and Olivia, for your commitment to living
life large—you are my muses and inspiration. May you each find and embrace
your own creative spirit throughout your lives. And finally, thanks go to my
parents for their encouragement of me to do the same.
Introduction
Apple, design, and Steve Jobs.
It's safe to say that you have probably had a firsthand experience with an Apple
product or service—and that you have had a deeper experience over the past
three decades with a succession of products created by one of the world's most
valuable companies. It's also safe to say that you have visited an Apple Store—
many times perhaps, to buy or browse or just to gawk in wonder—or have
logged onto the Apple website.
If you're like many people, you talk about the product, whether a Mac, an
iPod, an iPhone, or an iPad, and the experience with Apple itself as if they were
an important relationship. There is a reason for that.
The iPhone 4S brought voice recognition and smarts to life through Siri—
another Apple innovation that makes technology feel more human. Image: Apple
Inc.