At SXSW Michael Lopp explains how Apple consistently churns out serious bad ass design.

Here is a summary of the summary I read:

Pixel Perfect Mockups
This, Lopp says, “removes all ambiguity.”
Of course this takes tons and tons of time, but it is totally a case of measure twice cut once.

10 to 3 to 1
Every feature has ten TOTALLY serious mockups. Not, "I am pretending this is a different mockup but it is really just a copy with a different look" - 10 completely compelling and good mockups. It is typical to throw some designs in there just to make your favorite one look good - but apple doesn't do that, he said. Afterwards they whittle it down to three and then find the one that works best from there.

Paired Design Meetings
Every week there are two meetings. One in which to as Lopp put it: to "go crazy" free from constraint and full of "I wishes." Then they also hold a production meeting, separately, which is all about whens and hows and logistics. Even enar the end of a project, when you would think all the "i wishes" were irrelvant, this seems a compelling way to think about potential features and ideas even while the current project has solidified.

Pony Meeting
This is where everyone gets to show ALL their ideas to managers. The managers always want to see lots of ideas and this is an opportunity for a Manager to identify something in someone's idea they hadn't been able to express previously.

As one commentor said (I paraphrase) "The secret here is probably that this process is so simple."

It is simple, but it is hard to do and even harder to do well.

Learn more here:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2008/03/apples_design_p.html?link_position=link1

Labels: Apple, Design