Apple Design Process

As an industrial designer, I am really interested in the processes and activities that transpired before a product is released. One of these is the untold story of iPhone , revealing those secrecy and engineering work that was done between Apple and its partners. And Businessweek had a very nice article about this process.

Apple Design process is actually an ordinary product development process, the only difference was they made their processes with intense and almost perfect prototypes. Less time spent in sketching but more on building prototypes and mock-ups.

Most of the companies and design agencies are doing lots of sketches and other renderings but end-up with an average product. Because the prototypes are done on the later stage where you cannot do anymore iterations due to the time constraint and cost involve.

"Pixel Perfect Mockups ... causes a huge amount of work and takes an enormous amount of time. But, removes all ambiguity.” That might add time up front, but it removes the need to correct mistakes later on. "

Another thing that I wanted to point out is how they gave importance on ID brainstorming. They separate the ID and Engineering meetings which they call as Paired Design Meetings.

"Paired Design Meetings.. This was really interesting. Every week, the teams have two meetings. One in which to brainstorm, to forget about constraints and think freely. As Lopp put it: to "go crazy". Then they also hold a production meeting, an entirely separate but equally regular meeting which is the other's antithesis. Here, the designers and engineers are required to nail everything down, to work out how this crazy idea might actually work. This process and organization continues throughout the development of any app, though of course the balance shifts as the app progresses. But keeping an option for creative thought even at a late stage is really smart."

Early prototypes helps designers visualize the product right away. The feel, fit and finish are important in the experience of the consumer.

To read more about the article, here is the link.

Thanks for the tip Product Design Hub