An Apple for the Teacher
The Economist had a leader this week about lessons that can be learned from Apple.
One of them in particular rang true for me:
“Apple illustrates the importance of designing new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology. Too many technology firms think that clever innards are enough to sell their products, resulting in gizmos designed by engineers for engineers. Apple has consistently combined clever technology with simplicity and ease of use.”
While many in the tech industry give lip service to “usability” too few put it into practice. And us users, who have few means to push back on bad design, end up having to find “workarounds” to clunky tools.