Image courtesy of Pixabay

fastcodesign.com | Article Link | by Dan Nosowitz

Apple is the biggest and most influential technology company on the planet. A big reason for its success can be attributed to how it fully embraced a user-centric approach to design before many of its competitors even bothered to consider it .

From the day Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, Apple design became capital-D Design: the original iMac inspired lines of bold, colorful (or pure white) plastic gadgets, from desktop computers to tiny MP3 players. Apple’s design matured and changed with the advent of new production techniques; the white plastic MacBook’s frequent cracking was solved by the use of sturdier materials like single-block aluminum.

But in the process of correcting design flaws, distancing itself from the gimmickry of its peers, and embracing a new, slick aesthetic, Apple left behind the playfulness and personality-filled designs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. And where Apple goes, so goes the collective tech mindset.

Today, a quick glance at the “premium” product landscape reveals an overwhelming number of clones; monotonous, metallic sea of laptops, phones and tablets from companies who lack the ability to define their own vision and aesthetic. Consumer tech products have almost certainly become better as a result of their mimickry, but it has also made this design trend phenomenally boring.

Read more...