Try defining Apple’s Design Philosophy and you’d probably call it ‘radical’ as was its preacher and practitioner Steve. Path breaking products emerged out of crazy whims that lead to innovations that transformed lives. He famously said, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently - they're not fond of rules... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Would you imagine that the change actually started with a design blooper? In 1976 the first logo design was a pen illustration of Isaac Newton sitting under a tree, an apple dangling over his head - oops! 1977 saw the iconic bitten apple logo. If you wondered why, the apple symbolizes knowledge (as the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Bible). Also ‘bite’ could be spelt as "byte”. A typical Apple twist!
Apple’s Design Approach, in stark contrast to the design philosophy, was all about simplification of the complicated! Radical complex ideas were simplified by stripping away excess design and process until only the simple, elegant reality remained. The idea and process are closely guarded secrets. It was perfectly normal for the software and hardware designers to work in complete silos, so neither gets a complete sense of the project!
Apple applied this inward looking approach even to gathering customer insights for design. They relied only on Steve’s own research and intuition who actually believed that it was not the consumers' job to know what they wanted! Unusual approach, but listening a little to the customer’s voice could surely have helped avoided some design errors.
Apple’s Design Execution, its secret (sic) weapon delivers its iconic design in its physical and virtual space with fantastic consistency. You could spot it anywhere instantly -minimalist, intuitive and beautiful. The physical space, the store, was simply imagined to be the largest box in which an Apple product is wrapped. Steve was obsessively attentive to every single detail that went into its design.
When design agency, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, was briefed by Steve to use the Apple product design to create their store design, Bohlin must have thought he was nuts! But the ‘design nut’ played catalyst in the store concept creation and what happened was brushed metallic surfaces inspired from the iPod, air-conditioning grills undeniably matching the front panel of the Power Mac G5, bolt design on the staircase nipped from the neck of an iMac and so on. The obsession continued in the graphic language and typographic styles in the store which perfectly match those in Apple’s software interfaces, packaging, and advertising.
The store design concept was converted into sleek, transparent, inviting and technologically advanced Apple stores referred to as “tech temples” by customers. Not surprisingly it also won 42 design awards for Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and celebrity status for Principle architect Peter Bohlin. Some spectacular testimonies are the cube on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and the cylinder in the Pudong district of Shanghai.
The fifth-avenue store, a notoriously inhospitable basement for a retail destination, was transformed into a “tech temple” using unconventional design and architecture. A pristine transparent glass structure and a ‘magical floating’ glass staircase flooded with natural light enticed customers into this out of sight store. Entice customer it did and how! This store rakes in over $440 million per year and is also one of the most photographed landmarks in the world. Upping this architectural marvel, a 40 feet high glass cylinder flagship store was unveiled with fanfare in Shanghai. The iconic glass facade and the stairs were adapted across many locations and Apple is seeking to patent them as its store concept signature!
Enter the Apple store and compelling influencers like a theatre for presentations and workshops, a Studio for training with products and a Genius Bar for tech support (and geeks) strongly persuade you into becoming a brand believer. As a distinct differentiator in this category, the Apple stores are designed uncluttered, stylishly and beautiful. The products are cleverly organized by the context in which you’d use technology solutions, instead of by product categories, encouraging you to dream up possibilities. This obviously synch’s with Apple’s unusual sales philosophy: not to sell, but rather to help customers solve problems. Their training manual actually reads, "Your job is to understand all of your customers' needs—some of which they may not even realize they have"!
The products are well displayed on uncluttered table tops making browsing easy. But trying out products like a laptop on them, standing up, is a big pain in the neck (literally). Pull-out seating tucked below the tables could bring relief. Another innovative initiative was to replace the cash register with hand-held scanners for every employee. Probably works well till you decide to drop in on a busy day for a specific purchase and having to ‘hunt down’ a free hand to bill your purchase! One dedicated register, or better, a self check-out device could be a big help. No matter what, they experimented with new ideas, however radical, learnt from them and rewrote all the rule books of retailing and still were consistently popular.
Well, in closing it would be perfectly good to say that Apple is a remarkable outcome of radical design principles, approach and execution that consistently delivers delightful brand experience. Can’t help but add that ‘Apple is indeed the fruit of a true design nut.’ President Barack Obama’s ode to Steve says it all, “Steve transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.”
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