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.
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.
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.
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 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.
"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.
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[ 0.28 ms ] story [ 38.2 ms ] threadthe 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.