Michael Darius
@darius
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Apple pioneer, skeuomorph & protégé of Steve Jobs ⌛️TIME Invention of the Year 💿 Platinum for iTunes 🙋🏻♂️ Oath— 💬 Chat:
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Welcome to Skeuomorphic Design: Lessons from Apple's Golden Era: Unveiling the Craft and Legacy of Digital Design's Most Human Chapter
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Wes Modes' "Anatomy of a Water Drop" became an unexpected but pivotal influence on the art direction for improving the Aqua elements under MacOS X. Aqua was Apple's first foray into a more visually rich user interface, featuring elements like translucency, rounded corners, and
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Usability tip of the day 🤭: Never hand your smartphone to a celebrity for a selfie 🤳 if you have an android device.
(They won’t know how to use it)
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Apple Vision Pro demo by
@iamjesserichard
breathes new life into the value of Album cover art.
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Working with Steve Jobs was intense, but also transformative for my career as a designer. When he handpicked me to help design the iTunes Music Store, I was eager but intimidated.
However, I quickly realized that Steve valued boldness and clarity of vision above all else.
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Original Pac-Man concept sketches by Japanese designer Toru Iwatani
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Apple's internal hardware development process starts with mock-ups and demonstrators. These initial models are the most basic representations of the product, often made from materials like plastic or wood, and they don't actually function. They're used to give a physical form to
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Designing the "Buy Song" buttons for the iTunes Music Store was a study in pixel-level precision. Every element, from the color gradient and aliasing of the button labels, were meticulously crafted. The gradient had to strike the perfect balance—subtle yet noticeable—creating a
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Steve Jobs was infamous for demanding that every detail proposed to him be thought through to an almost excruciating level. Whenever we brought interface ideas or flows for his feedback, he would dig into the rationale asking "Why is it designed this way?" and "What else did you
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navbar from 2000-2021
(I was responsible for it from 2000-2005)
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We literally improved the overall experience of being a Microsoft Windows user by designing iTunes for Windows iPod owners and now we're supposed to make the messaging experience for Android better for a company that stole our intellectual property for the iPhone simply because
The idea that Apple is anti-competitive by "making other products worse" is so insulting to anyone who understands how hard it is to improve upon the end-to-end experience for literally the entire world.
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At Apple, we consciously avoided labeling experiences as being for "user experiences" or "customer experiences" Those terms felt transactional and impersonal to us. Instead, we always referred to designing "people experiences" - reminding ourselves that real human beings with
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The Apple Account Information screen I designed in 2003 for the iTunes Music Store remains virtually unchanged (20 years later).
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When we were working on GarageBand, one of our major challenges was to transform Logic Pro, a professional-grade music production software, into a consumer-friendly application. Logic Pro was incredibly powerful but also complex, and our goal was to make music creation accessible
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Steve Jobs had a unique relationship with the design team, treating us not just as employees but as an invaluable asset crucial to the company's future. He believed that design was not merely an aesthetic layer applied to a finished product, but an integral part of the product
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I removed the year from this plaque for those of us on the Apple Design Team who didn't have team plaques during our tenure with the company.
As a lead feature designer at Apple from 1999-2005, I helped build Apple's first centralized application design team and culture,
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What’s important to note about this history and the part of the story that doesn’t get told is that
@forstall
didn’t have SJ or myself around anymore to defend and protect the natural evolution of skeuomorphism into the next era from the industrial grips of the hardware designers
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January 8, 2004 was such a big day for me, my baby went live.
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If you thought Steve Jobs was crazy because of his no notetaking policy, you should hear how he felt about not wanting designers to code.
Studies prove that the mental model of a designer is closer to the mental model of the user than the mental model of a developer because
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The decision to discontinue Apple's Aperture was a painful one, not just for the photographers who had come to rely on its robust feature set, but also for the team that had poured so much into its development. Jonathan Leffert, in particular, had worked tirelessly on advanced
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After my departure from Apple, a noticeable shift occurred in the company's approach to digital design, marked by Jony Ive's increased influence in this domain. While Jony Ive's hardware designs have their own merits, his foray into interface design led to a departure from the
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When capturing iconic products like the iPod, Apple's product photography studio operates under a philosophy that could be described as a relentless pursuit of perfection. The goal being to create images that are not just visually stunning but also deeply resonant with the
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We worked hard on this.
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There is just no reason why an interface should be anything but beautiful.
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Switching from Apple Garamond to Helvetica wasn't merely a font swap for Apple; it marked a pivotal juncture in our approach to visual hierarchy and purpose-driven design. Watching Gary Hustwit's "Helvetica" when it first came out in 2007 felt like looking into a mirror of our
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Here was a very early sketch of GarageBand before we knew we wanted to call it GarageBand.
All of our 'sketches' were full resolution.
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On the Apple Design Team we had something called 'short form performance reviews'. Meaning that we were held by different performance standards than the rest of the organization.
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When we first embarked on the iChat project back in the early 2000s, we knew we were stepping into a transformative space. Partnering with AOL was a strategic masterstroke. At the time, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was the go-to messaging platform, and integrating it into iChat
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I liked Apple’s design philosophy better when the products were more influenced by B&o in Denmark than Beats by Dre in Compton.
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The idea that Apple is anti-competitive by "making other products worse" is so insulting to anyone who understands how hard it is to improve upon the end-to-end experience for literally the entire world.
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When conceiving the iMac G4, there was a moment of clarity that the computer should feel alive and approachable, echoing Luxo Jr.’s anthropomorphic qualities. The articulating arm allowed the screen to float in space, giving people a new level of interaction with their
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When I joined Apple in 1999, one of my first major projects was helping to conceptualize and realize the new Aqua design language for Mac OS X. Aqua established Apple's user experience for the next era with slick transparency, vibrant colors, and refined real-world textures. In
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Steve Jobs' deeply personal and contemplative side was integral to his visionary approach at Apple, where he incessantly placed himself in the shoes of the everyday users. Jobs had an uncanny ability to anticipate the needs and desires of consumers, often before they were fully
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Patrice, Carolyne, Joe & Payam pulling all nighters before the launch of the iTunes Music Store 2003.
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The act of inscribing the Apple insignia on the reverse of each iPod was a ritual of precision, reflecting the essence of our design philosophy. This emblem was more than a logo; it was a testament to innovation and a mark of craftsmanship.
In the final strokes of the
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When Safari was introduced in 2003, it wasn't just a technological marvel; it was also a design achievement. The browser's clean, simple interface was a departure from the cluttered toolbars and confusing settings that characterized other browsers of the era. Apple's focus on
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Steve Jobs was renowned for his captivating presentations, and a significant part of his success as a public speaker stemmed from his firm belief in the power of a well-told story over reading from presenter’s notes. Jobs understood that authenticity and connection with the
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Why I work in the 'design' field, not in the 'tech' field:
Steve Jobs was intensely passionate about Apple being recognized first and foremost for design over technology. He saw Apple at the intersection of liberal arts and sciences, blending artistry and technical innovation.
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The irony of working on a Notes app is that Apple designers are trained to not take notes during meetings. We were taught to "listen better" by not taking notes because of Steve Jobs' unique belief that note taking distracts a person from relying on their own memory to remember
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The original iMac G3, introduced in 1998, featured a Bondi Blue color. This color was named after the hue of the water at Bondi Beach in Australia. It had a distinctive, deep teal-like quality, a blend of blue and green, which set a bold new standard for computer aesthetics at
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Designing the iTunes and iPhoto windows to function seamlessly at their smallest sizes required a keen focus on prioritization and adaptability. Essential controls and features were identified to ensure they remained accessible and functional, even at reduced sizes. The design
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I still vividly recall the day Exposé was first introduced to the public, and it was nothing short of electrifying for us at Apple. We had been part of numerous product launches and software releases, but this? This was something else. The murmurs started early that day, buzzes
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For the introduction of iWeb at MacWorld Expo 2006, Steve Jobs introduced a compelling matrix for good application design, a simple yet profound 2x2 matrix that charted 'Easy' against 'Hard' and 'Ugly' against 'Beautiful.'
This matrix was more than just a visual tool; it
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In a world that continues to spin in the absence of a mentor like Steve Jobs, there’s a yearning for a leader of his caliber, one who injects a soul into the heart of Silicon Valley. Jobs was a beacon of innovation, not just for his ability to foresee the needs of the technology
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In the early 2000s, we stood on the precipice of a digital renaissance. At Apple, we were not just creating products; we were crafting experiences, each pixel, each interaction steeped in intentionality. The MacOS X Dashboard was a manifestation of this philosophy—an oasis of
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Apple's keynote presentations, particularly during Steve Jobs' tenure, were more than just corporate announcements; they were meticulously choreographed events that captured global attention. The creation of each keynote was a massive collaborative effort, requiring input and
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This was a really proud day for me.
I had $14,000
@BowersWilkins
speakers I gave up to simplify my sound system when we launched the iPod Hifi speaker
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Steve Jobs was also known for some of his unconventional habits, one of which was driving a car without a license plate. This quirk was not an oversight but a deliberate choice enabled by a clever use of California’s vehicle laws. In California, when you buy a new car, you're
Aside from Steve Jobs not always being looked up upon for his neglect of Lisa and domestic life, there are many others whose ideas were well ahead of their time teaching us that many times the people who actually Think Different aren't always the same people society always knows
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Desktop operating under Mac OS X used to have so much more soul.
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Once your babies are out there in the world and people are using them, you never really leave the company.
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If you look closely at the screen behind my friend Leslie as she is playing DJ for the night, there is a menu item that says 'Jingle'. As lead feature designer, this was an internal build of iTunes we would use to test things in staging before going live with a new set of
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Steve above all taught me that if you aren't proud of where you are investing your energy that you are wasting your energy on the wrong things.
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Whenever I host a design workshop or ideation session I never give credence to the devil’s advocate in the room for this very reason.
“The Devil's Advocate encourages idea-wreckers to assume the most negative possible perspective, one that sees only the downside, the problems,
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The 1985 Macintosh Office Super Bowl ad was significant because being a company of firsts, it was the first to showcase technology during a Super Bowl halftime, a time when lots of people are watching (which popularized halftime advertising). The additional touch of placing an
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Designing the first login screen for what was then called iTools was an incredible experience, one that allowed me to contribute to the foundational elements of Apple's cloud services. The challenge was to create a gateway that was not just functional but also embodied the Apple
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In macOS Sonoma, Apple has revisited the concept of widgets. While previously they were tucked away in the Notifications Center, now they've been simply brought to the desktop, offering an interaction that's reminiscent of past features.
Looking back to 2005, dashboard was
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If you've been paying attention to the nav all these years, you may have noticed the metal aesthetic that was pulled from the hardware was also something that resembled the finder windows.
The removal of metal and aqua from the finder was the result of
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For more Internet nostalgia from the early 2000's, these were some of the Internet Badges I was responsible for.
The 'Created on a Macintosh.' badge would show up on all of our member generated HomePages as a badge of honor (people loved their Mac when these were popular and
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Here's the original photoshop template file we used when putting together all of the interface elements for the iTunes Music Store.
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In October 2000, Apple had to grudgingly acknowledge Amazon's foothold in e-commerce by adopting their "one-click" purchasing method on our website and later in iTunes. While Amazon had the foresight to patent the term "one-click", we at Apple had always prided ourselves on
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It should come as no surprise why I regularly come to Steve's defense to defend our work ethic in a world where our hard work and commitment to quality is frequently reduced in the public mind as Steve Jobs having been a tyrant or a dictator rather than a great design leader.
It
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Dear Twitter Community,
Today marks a truly heartwarming milestone – we've reached 10,000 followers! 🎉 As someone who has never prioritized follower counts, this achievement is deeply meaningful. It's not just a number; it represents our shared passion for design and the strong
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In designing the iPod, our ambition was to produce a device that felt instinctive and comforting in the hand—a contrast to the cold, impersonal electronics that were common at the time. The resulting click wheel was an embodiment of this philosophy, providing a serene and natural
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The anti-Steve Jobs culture is so strong now that he’s been gone for a while that even those who were on his winning team can’t come out into the open to share valuable learnings without getting attacked.
The man isn’t around to defend himself and those who worked with him and
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I take great pride in the work I put into the products like iLife and iTunes represented in these ads and I was proud to work for the company who was willing to shed light on just how inferior of an experience working on a PC is.
Happy Holidays 🎄(from a Mac).
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Dear algorithm,
Connect me to:
Aspiring designers
Design students
Designers
Design leaders
Design managers
Design directors
Heads of design
Heads of product
Product leadership
CEOs
VP’s of design
Founders of companies
Designer founders
Human interface designers
Apple employees
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The transition from pixel-based graphics to vector-based design in Apple's operating systems represented more than just a technological evolution; it also indicated a change in the company's design philosophy. For some, this shift was accompanied by the feeling that the soul of
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When you care more deeply about design and quality, you care about how well thought through the parts people can’t see are.
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Apple has been fighting the DOJ for more than 20 years over the ability to protect user privacy.
District court judges have no idea how their personal quality of life is actually protected by making sure Apple devices are more secure than their competitors.
People are so
DOJ calls Apple’s privacy justifications an ‘elastic shield’ for financial gains
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@arturot
Since Apple inherently doesn't believe in usability testing in practice, most of what I'll say will sound like heresy to most of the industry but Apple thrives on being counter to the dominant paradigms. We had a STRONG QA team and most of the employees were able to give feedback
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The first Apple store introduced new design challenges, especially the need for high-resolution images to showcase apps. This wasn't just about making things bigger. It was about maintaining the detail and quality people expected from Apple.
The retail store added many new image
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To start I would re-establish the relationship between Pixar and Apple to raise the bar on quality over icon families.
@darius
Can you make a concept on how you would design the next version of iOS and/or macOS in the event you were re-hired as designer?
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These were my teammates and most cherished friends.
Dream team. Anybody that tells you that innovation isn't messy doesn't know what they are talking about.
This is the room we'd present my design comps every week, (twice a week) for 5 years.
From left to right: Phil Schiller,
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If you want to learn to be great, get rid of the committees.
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