I was reading this story about Apple’s “deep bench” in the absence of Steve Jobs, who has just taken medical leave from the company. Describing the influence of Jonny Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design, an analyst said this:
“He’s arguably the most important person there outside of Steve. […] He’s responsible for the look and feel of the products, the way they interact with users.”
The way products interact with users. This could easily have been a slip — maybe the analyst meant to say “the way users interact with products.” Either way, I think the idea of products interacting with users is a really fascinating concept.
What is more complex? Your iPhone or you? You, of course. And you’re different from every other human. We shouldn’t have to learn a single system. Systems should have to learn us.