The biggest question I have is does Apple do user testing? Do they trust their small group of designers more than a small sample of the population?<p>This my biggest question for Apple's design team.
some may find this interesting: <a href="http://theultralinx.com/2014/03/dieter-rams-inspired-apple-products.html" rel="nofollow">http://theultralinx.com/2014/03/dieter-rams-inspired-apple-p...</a>
It is interesting to note that Jony Ive thinks "the change isn't perhaps as dramatic as you might assume." I would like to point out that people outside Apple don't necessarily share this opinion. Here are some quotes from some prominent people in the Apple community:<p>The Verge wrote: "iOS 7 isn't harder to use, just less obvious. That's a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious." In iOS 7 basic usability features such as making buttons look like buttons are now stuffed under Accessibility options. About this, Tumblr co-founder Marco Arment wrote: "If iOS 8 can’t remove any of these options, it's a design failure." (And iOS 8 hasn't.) Michael Heilemann, Interface Director at Squarespace wrote, "when I look at [iOS 7 beta] I see anti-patterns and basic mistakes that should have been caught on the whiteboard before anyone even began thinking about coding it." And famed blogger John Gruber said this about iOS 7: "my guess is that [Steve Jobs] would not have supported this direction." Enough said.
> This is part of Steve’s legacy. Deep in the culture of Apple is this sense and understanding of design, developing and making. Form and the material and process – they are beautifully intertwined – completely connected.<p>This is also true of modern web design. It's easy to work out which designers embody it:<p>* old-school designer - is still slinging over PSDs with little concern or consideration around multiple screens, technical limitations (is there a webfont available for the typeface(s) etc). Doesn't embody the philosophy Ive expresses.<p>* modern web designer - provides designs as static HTML, necessary to reveal the 'developing and making' considerations around assets, responsive design experiences etc. Definitely embodies the philosophy Ive expresses.