Apple ‘a little behind in software design’: OLTP designer

Apple ‘a little behind in software design’: OLTP designer

Yves Behar, the designer behind the One Laptop Per Child (OLTP) computer and Jawbone Jambox, believes much can be achieved if designers build both hardware and software together. “Nobody is really doing that today. Even Apple is designing its products and its software separately. It’s a little behind” when it came to bringing hardware and software designers together, he told Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs at the London Design Festival. Some of Apple’s software has been criticised recently for including redundant ornamentation from real-world objects in its design, an approach known as skeuomorphism. In a recent article for Fast Company, Austin Carr wrote that skeuomorphism even divides designers within Apple. Those who support the approach argue that adding ‘leather’ textures to a calendar app can give people subconscious cues as to the purpose of the app before they’ve consciously begun to learn the app. Likewise, the fake wooden bookshelf which holds ebooks in Apple’s iBooks app helps to put the user in the right frame of mind for reading. Behar was dismissive of skeuomorphism: “You could use the exact same explanation for a hardware product. You could say ‘I don’t know what a tablet is, I’ve never used a tablet. Let’s make it look like a book. Or let’s make it look like my leather-bound notepad’. Obviously they didn’t go there with the hardware so why did they go there with the software? It’s a really good question.” Last week Apple released iOS 6, the updated mobile operating system, which was criticised for Apple’s new Maps app, which replaces Google Maps and is filled with errors.