A-loo-minum is an element; glass is not

So, do you like them? I thought so. I had to educate Steve about glass (silicon dioxide) not being an element. Aluminium - sorry, a-loo-minum - is an element. Glass is a compound.

Apologies for not writing for such a long time. Those beautiful iMacs didn't just make themselves, you know.

Keyboard conundrums

Take a look at our keyboards. Pretty aren't they? Well, I think so:
Notice how they curve upwards, towards the user? That's the problem - I wanted a flat-ish design with a movable flap underneath, like with the older G4 era design:





Why? Because having a keyboard flat with the surface of your desk is better for your hands. Having the keyboard tilt up towards you is a bit more stressful to the wrists. Go on, try it and see.

With a flat keyboard your wrists are more or less straight, but with a tilted one your wrists are bent upwards. Over time this can be uncomfortable. When I pointed this out to Steve he said, yeah, true, but the market wants curved keyboards - it looks more sophisticated. And besides it's cheaper to make - fewer parts to assemble, you see.

It's like a V6 engine vs. a straight six: the straight six is actually better (see BMW) but the reason why many car companies make V6s is that people think they're more advanced or some nonsense. You can't undo a V6 but at least with our older keyboards you could prop them up to make them flat again.

Just an example of the small compromises that we have to make.

Two water glasses

I'm sorry about leaving so much time between the last post and this one. You know how it is at Apple: small teams working long hours at big projects... and loving it!

Right-o, then. Have a look at these two water glasses. They are both made by the same company, Libbey U.S.A. The first one is a mixing glass, the second is for drinks.

They are both straight and tapered, made of clear glass. There is no ornamentation, no fancy designs, patterns, printing or etching. And yet they are beautiful objects: a great example of the power of simplicity. However, the second one has a thicker base and this is what makes it slightly nicer than the other one.

The thicker base gives it more weight in the hand (remember: design is about form and function working together) and gives it nicer proportions. It has less capacity (16oz. vs 14oz.) which makes the first one more suitable as a mixing glass, its intended purpose.

So what's a mixing glass then? Well, you can drink out of them if you like but their purpose is to mix cocktails. How? Well, there are two common ways to mix a cocktail: place the ingredients in a shaker with ice; or pour them into a mixing glass.

What you do is put lots of small ice cubes in the glass, pour the cocktail ingredients in (their contact with the ice as they trickle downwards cools them), stir a little and then, making sure the ice doesn't fall out, pour the mixed liquid into a cocktail glass (on its way out the liquid will cool and mix a little more).

Simplicity usually has a lot of staying power: you won't ever get sick of a good, simple design. That isn't to say that nicely cut crystal is bad - on the contrary, nice crystal is exquisitely wonderful to behold if a little delicate. But there is so much cheap and nasty glassware going around and because most folks may not pay as much attention to the style as they do the price, the kitchens of the world are full of ugly, depressing and wishy-washy glasses which make life that little more 'blah'.

You can buy the first one here and the second one here.

If you can appreciate basic things like nice glassware, you'll be more likely to pay the higher price and enjoy them more. Even simple things like well chosen glasses can make life a little more interesting. Why be boring? Choosing merely functional objects doesn't make you smart, it makes you dull. It doesn't matter about how trivial the object is, it matters how much consideration goes into making and acquiring it.

Tutorials on how to appreciate good design

Every now and then I'd like to show you an example of great design and then, in a hopefully friendly manner, point out some of the reasons why it's so great. Think of it as an introduction to good design for everyguy/everygirl. I know you'd likely prefer to read about what Fake Steve and I are up to but I think that the more that the general citizen gets to look a bit longer at something, the more they'll be able to appreciate it - and refuse, in future, to go back to ordinary things.

This is important to me. It's my vision for the world. Yes, peace and harmony are important priorities. But lo, I am not a prophet nor a peacemaker (see Proverbs). I'm a designer and that is what I love (or if you're a Lutheran, what I'm 'predestined' to do). And to quote Steve, "Do what you love". There - two authorities!

Anyway, here's hoping you'll be able to get something from these little 'tutes'. I'll start next week. Have a great Easter break, everyone.

The idea for the iMac G4 came from this Italian lamp - or did it?

While we're on the topic of inspiration I want to show you a couple of pics than a reader from Australia sent me. He was in this high end interior design shop in Melbourne, Geoffrey Hatty Applied Arts, which has quite a reputation as I'm told. Anyway he spotted this rather curious white Italian lamp. The base is painted timber - or wood, for my North American readers - and it's a half-dome shape, similar in size but smaller than the base of the iMac G4.

A lot of people - I included - referred to the design as being like a sunflower. Think about if for a minute and see how similar a sunflower and a lamp are. They're different enough but similar enough to make things interesting don't you think?

Now your job is to ponder over whether we got the inspiration from this lamp or whether it's a coincidence. There are no wrong answers... because I'm not telling you!


And besides, the point is that there is inspiration everywhere. Sometimes your mind is ignited by things you see and sometimes it's ignited by things you don't - from the beyond. It can be difficult to determine which exactly has happened on a given occasion, but it's important to remember that ideas come from both places.

How not to be inspired by nature

Spiral? Beautiful. Dopey looking snail shell? Not so beautiful.

How nature inspires us

Nature makes the best medicine, did you know that? Well, you do now! But nature doesn't make computers (well...) or passenger aircraft. So we have to invent them. But we find that sometimes our machines work better if we do more than simply apply the mere laws of nature (read physics). Sometimes we have to step back from the fundamentals (technical laws) and see the big picture. Leonardo da Vinci saw how powerful and inspiring nature was, and so do many designers and engineers. Nature can be baroque, it can be minimalistic, it can be abstract, it can be surreal. So we have a lot to choose from.

So how does nature inspire us here at Apple? Well, it's not always obvious. But have a look at this 'hockey puck' mouse we did back in '98 for the first iMac:



We based that on something so simple you'll probably gasp: a drop of water at rest. Brilliant or what? But the problem was that due to its regular shape, the user had to keep looking at it to ensure it was correctly oriented (we made a similar mistake but in a different way some years later - can you guess?). I don't mind that we had to change it. But the worst thing was hearing it referred to as a hockey puck. Nobody in the popular press has ever called it the 'water drop' mouse. Which would have been brilliant because a couple of years later the company released OS X and its interface was called... Aqua.