Share the aesthetic concept of Apple's industrial design

Article Description: (translation) The two-part method of Apple's aesthetic philosophy.

The article I saw last week, although it used a lot of difficult words, but the author's view is quite interesting, so the translation come to play, when it is not a long post, occasionally to take a bubble bar. As usual, the original translation can not be done intact, but also without permission to add some illustrations, if you want to see authentic articles, please go to the original: Apple's aesthetic dichotomy

When we talk about Apple's design, it's always the first time to think of Jony Ive's modern, rational industrial design, including computers, peripherals, and, no doubt, IPad and IPhone products.

Although the internal functions of these devices are getting stronger, their shape design is becoming more and more concise. Products, including Magic Trackpad and Macbook Air, are not as concise as they are, but the IPhone 4 and 4S have become an example of industrial design, and their refined structure is simply too simple.

But for Apple's aesthetic philosophy, there is a fact that has plagued me for a long time: in these rational, economical and concise hardware designs, it has been crammed into more and more interfaces designed for naïve apps.

When Steve Jobs released his iPhone, perhaps the most exciting product launch of his life, he said the new phone was shaped like an iPod with an old-fashioned turntable dialer, such jokes led to the expected laughter (they did develop a similar interface in the early IPhone prototypes, according to reliable sources). But when we look at Apple's IPad calendar App, there's no irony. Designers have a mind to imitate the real-world calendar on the APP's interface and decorate the leather texture and torn calendar pages. Then Apple released a new MAC version of its Address Book app, and a recent iPhone version of a search for a friend app, and still only a handful of people made a mockery of discontent.

In my opinion, many of Apple's native apps, including these, are designed in exactly the opposite way to their hardware design.

My personal design style is obviously not with pure decorative elements, which makes me hate those "sentimental" App, but what is it?

In simple terms: because these designs are deceptive . These apps all try to simulate real-world objects to make us more comfortable to use, but many are not necessary. Through the stitching on the leather texture, do you really know what the "find friend" App is for? Even a user who is not too familiar with a digital product, is it so hard to understand a list of titles? Do you really have to use a visual design that simulates a wooden bookshelf to present all the books?

These designs are very kitsch (the original is kitsch, seemingly from the Kundera novel "Life Unbearable Light." Elder brother is not literary, never look so "elegant" things, can only according to their own understanding casually translated, from the designer of their own sentimentality, those decorations are just designers themselves feel fun and added. In the definition of Kundera, the so-called kitsch is "resolutely deny the dog excrement" (the original is "the absolute denial of shit", the elder brother does not turn, everybody understands it. Anyway, these apps feel like they're from Disney's hands and they feel hypocritical.

This kind of design is very popular recently, we all call it "Skeuomorph". Strictly speaking, it refers to the design of new things with the previous existence, and once had a certain value of the things linked, please note, is "once valuable", now there is no. A good positive textbook is an IPAD version of the electronic synthesizer App that uses a combination of handles and wires that allows you to "rotate" and "plug" the interaction.

There is a difference between "skeuomorph" and a common metaphor. A feather at the end of a pen is skeuomorph, designed by shouting "Drive!" "To speed up and shout!" "The car to brake is also skeuomorph. The native icon design in the Lion system is not skeuomorphic, but it uses only a few metaphors rather than some features intended to replicate the original. If you use a wooden shell, it's really becoming a skeuomorph world.

The trouble with Skeuomorph may be subtle, but I think it's important. The icons on the computer appear as they are now because they want to express what some ordinary users don't have a deep impression on, such as "a bunch of data in a disc" and so on. But for a calendar, people already have a very image of the mental model, so there is no need to specifically design him as an old-fashioned calendar, especially now on the device screen, leaving us a relatively limited space.

In addition to these interface designs, let's look at other aspects. Steve Jobs mentioned "Emotion" when he released "IAd", and Apple's ads often played super warm family cards. Although very fake, but have to admit that a lot of people like this, because people in life in the daily choreography, performance such a false play, full of hypocrisy and all kinds of lies. So Apple is still selling more and more products in the end.

Let's take a look at what Mr. Jobs demonstrated at various conferences: the default book in IBooks-Winnie the Pooh, the movie that shows the video playback-Pixar cartoons and all sorts of music, and recalls the artist--coldplay, who performed at the recent Steve Jobs ' recall at Apple. And Norah, if all this comes from the personal choice of jobs, it seems that the author of this childish aesthetics is himself. Can you imagine that we would invite Coldplay and Norah to sing while recalling Dieter Rams?

Of course, I understand that no matter how much Apple stresses how different they are from other rivals, every new product will need to create some selling points for the general public. So it is understandable to adopt some popular mass culture. Just from the recent tendency of their almost obsessive obsession to create a variety of object interfaces, this approach has slowly become a solid aesthetic concept, rather than a mere marketing stunt.

Here I want to ask: why Apple does not extend this method to the hardware design of the device? Why not make a wood shell for the iMac? Isn't it like the ugly wooden-shell TV we used as a child? Or a shell that can remind people of typewriters?

Instead, why not take childish, hypocritical procedures from beautiful, concise, efficient equipment to remove it?

My personal favorite interface design is the Metro style used by Microsoft on Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8. On top of that you don't have to spend your energy coordinating the objects in the old tech world and the programs that replace them, and all the design elements are digitized.

I wish Apple would come back early on the degraded path that this naïve aesthetic philosophy has guided.

Article Source: iconmoon.com/blog2/apples-aesthetic-dichotomy/