Is Good Design Replicable?
Joshua Porter asks “Is there a process that guarantees good design?” My response:
I think a lot of this type of discourse depends on the assumption that designs are finite, stand-alone products. If a designer works in a continuous and holistic manor, constantly refining and improving the product, it becomes much harder to count successes and failures.
I think that Apple sees not just each product as an evolving design with iterations, but rather their whole strategy for a particular problem is the product. For instance, you can look at iTunes, the iTunes Music Store, and each type of iPod as separate products, or you can look at Apple’s overall strategy (to profit from improving the user experience of finding and listening to music) as a product.
I believe Apple’s success is founded less on process and more on the fact that they take a holistic and iterative approach to “product” design that integrates everything and everyone involved from design to engineering to manufacturing to business strategy.1 year ago
