Quote:
Originally Posted by stealthn
Jobs saw things others within Apple never will, there is no one there that has the kind of imagination he did.
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Agreed.
I think much of Jobs wisdom came from his adoption and adherence to the Human Interface Doctrine.
Nearly everyone else creates technology that people need to learn / be taught how to use.
Apple / Jobs always approached new product from the position of, if this were something people could do today what is the natural way they would do it and designed to meet that natural inclination.
I remember my first iPod, I picked it up, spun the wheel, clicked the big center button and I had it.
My brothers b-day was coming up so I decided to get him one. Went to a big box and started picking up other mp3 players because the iPod was expensive and you could get more capacity for less with the other offerings.
Every single one had a horrible user experience. Convoluted menus, multiple buttons for seemingly redundant functions, felt cheap and fragile.
Sales guy comes over and we start talking. At one point he says, yeah they all do the same thing and the others are certainly a bargain. He pauses and says, but they are not iPods.
When the iPhone first came out I had an out of state client that I would visit for a week every other week for 6 months. Was pretty much living in the same hotel the entire time. You start to get to know the regulars.
Sitting at the bar one night having a beer and dinner and this guy I'd met comes in and sits down. UI/UX engineer for Verizon. He see's my new iPhone and starts poo pooing it, no physical keyboard, Apple, walled garden etc...
He asks to see it. Starts playing with it and he's mumbling to himself, cool, wow, nice. Played with it a good half hour.
Next night he comes in with his boss. They sit down and he asks to see the phone again. Right away he's hammering his boss, look at this, so intuitive, check this out, watch this, this is how it's done, this is what we should be doing.
That is and always was Apples thing. It was never necessarily to invent something new but about doing it right.
Personally I think Jobs would have **** all over removing the headphone jack. It's not a better UX.