Lab+1

Jonathan Ives is Apple’s Vice-President of industrial design and is recognized as one of the ‘geniuses’ behind their products. The videos discussed Ives’ initial experience with Apple computers as well as his childhood passion of understanding why the products were built the way they were. As a child, Jonathan began to dissemble products to study their components in order to comprehend why and how they were manufactured the way they were. The reason Ives argues Apple products are so successful are because of their ease of use and simplicity of their design. The idea that the design must be implemented from the beginning rather than added in at the end is Ives’ theory of “undesign.” The ideology of products being created with simplistic intentions, instead of flashy and complicated designs emphasize the natural and “undesigned” aspect of the Apple products such as the iMac. The application of this idea is demonstrated through the design of the indicator. The indicator light is only visible when it is trying to indicate something; otherwise it remains invisible to users. The user feedback and revolutionary designs are the grounds for Jonathan Ives’ career and Apple’s reputation and success over their competitors.