Whatever you think of its products, Apple has a clear design philosophy, and one that can apply to other endeavours. Apple software engineering VP Craig Federighi articulated it neatly in an interview with Businessweek: “new is easy, right is hard.”
Casey Newton at the Verge reports:
While sceptics look at the new iPhones and sing their annual chorus of “meh,” Cook and his deputies have come together to offer a full-throated defence of their products’ steady evolution. “You’ve got a sense about perhaps not what we are building, but the way we approach problems as a group,” Ive says in USA Today. “About how we go back again and again until something is just right.” Federighi puts it more succinctly, offering up an unofficial tagline for the modest improvements of the iPhone 5S: “New is easy,” Federighi tells Businessweek. “Right is hard.”
Federighi’s simplified philosophy makes a lot of sense. We can all find new ideas exciting, but when you get them wrong they fall flat and fail to last. When we approach our own projects and ideas, we shouldn’t focus so much on new. Good, better and right — those things require struggle and ultimately make for better goals.
Apple’s most important introductions: Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and Jony Ive [The Verge]
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