How the Apple Went From a Humble Fruit to an Oft-Imitated Icon
// November 6th, 2008 // Design
As a young person, the McIntosh was my favourite variety of apple. I enjoyed — and still enjoy — its crisp flesh, tart-with-a-hint-of-sweet flavour, and its smooth, red and green skin. It’s one of the simplest foods you can eat, yet possesses healthy, tasty, and satisfying qualities, all in a portable package.
In most modern conversations, “Apple” and “Mac” have less to do with fruit and more to do with the computer company, yet most of the qualities found in the fruit are also present in Apple Computer’s products. Just as the McIntosh apple has spawned numerous imitators in the form of new apple varieties, the Mac and iPhone OS X user interface is influencing UX design everywhere I look.
The Apple iPhone has certainly revolutionized the mobile phone market. Everyone, from LG to BlackBerry to Motorola, is scrambling to produce a replica of the iPhone’s beautifully intuitive User Interface. I still don’t believe that a device with no physical buttons is the best solution for dialing and messaging, but no one seems to care right now. It’s almost definitely the “cool factor” that’s driving sales of these devices. It’ll be interesting to see whether this is just a short-lived trend, or if it becomes part of the way we interact with devices.
I recently spoke to a senior designer from another interactive agency about his inspiration for a Web application he’s currently working on. His answer: the iPhone and OS X. It’s not uncommon for designers to draw from operating systems or even cell phone UIs, but I wondered if the iPhone’s visual elements would support the type of project he was working on and speak to the target audience. Would the design translate well to a full-screen Web application? Did the design meet the client’s brand objectives? Ultimately, would the design be intuitive enough for a wide audience to understand it, since some UI elements would require user input that isn’t what people are used to? Or, did the designer just want to impress the client with a “cool” iPhone-like interface?
And it doesn’t stop there. Watching the results come in during the U.S. Presidential election on November 4th, nearly every Canadian and American television network used some sort of touch-screen interface to displays statistics. Most involved the host standing in front of a large flat-panel TV and touching individual states on a map of the U.S., zooming and panning the graphics just like the iPhone or Microsoft Surface. Most of it was obviously scripted: as the host gestured over the screen, someone in the control room was doing the real driving. Do we really need to resort to flashy tactics to present news? How does this virtual touch screen support the objective? Does it enhance credibility? It’s certainly not engaging since the viewer at home can’t interact with it.
All this being said, I’m a big fan of my iPod Touch and I recently made The Switch from Windows to Mac. It’s easy to understand why so many want to imitate Apple’s products, but as designers, developers, or anyone else responsible for delivering information to the masses, we need to really think about whether or not it will truly enhance the customer experience. Sometimes the humble McIntosh apple is best left to the original.
