Welcome to another episode of Some Great Things. This time I thought I'd do something a little bit different. I thought I would look at a company that I really admire and sometimes hate.
Apple. They make things that are really easy to use, work really well together, and my favorite, have a great product design. It's really interesting that you can look at a product and instantly know it's designed by Apple. I think people have talked generally about Apple's design philosophy a lot and definitely gotten really deep into the UX design. I don't think many people have gotten to Apple's product design style for the mid-2020s.
So today I'm going to talk about Apple's product design style and what makes an Apple product look like an Apple product. As usual on this program, we will be designing product along the way, and since I haven't seen Apple release a 5G router yet that I know of, we're going to design a little 5G router modem thingy. Just a quick note for the lawyers, I'm not affiliated with Apple in any way, so Apple please don't sue me or ask me to take this video down. But if they want to buy some of the Apple designs we're going to make today off of me, then I could buy more of their nice expensive products.
Let's get into it. Today, I'm going to talk about the history of Apple, how they're designing a little bit, and their sustainability principles and where they're at. Jumping into history. Apple's design strategy has changed a lot during the years.
In the early days, the motto was... do more and cost less. Their early products were really utilitarian and very Bauhaus, supporting the idea of high value at low cost. In the 90s and early 2000s, Apple's hardware strategy focused on the user experience and ease of use. The products were light and fun looking.
They used transparent plastics and bright colors. It made their new products more approachable, really pushing this idea of easy to use. Now, it seems like Apple is really focusing more on this premium segment of the market. The style is more technical, it's more premium, it's more focused on quality, and it's very aesthetics driven. What I'd like to do for the rest of the video is dive into a bit more of exactly what the Apple design style is right now.
So let's dive into some of the forms that Apple's using to make Apple products look like Apple products. The first form we're looking at is the idea of the monolith. Apple products really look like one solid.
thing as opposed to a combination of different forms, for instance, like lamps. And this really pushes the idea of something that's easy to use, but sturdy and quality. Making something that looks like a box sounds very simple to do on the surface, but gets really difficult once you start getting into how to manufacture things in mass quantity.
Apple is really one of the only companies that can pull us off because their expertise in manufacturing and engineering, and they have the capital to do it. So let's start off designing our little router 5G modem thingy. And start with a simple box. We got a box.
It's a box. Doesn't have to be that complicated. Not very much right now, but we'll keep going.
Moving on to the next idea in the Apple design language, rounded rectangle. Most of Apple's products are based on some form of this rounded rectangle. They've done it for a lot of their history and they still do it today.
This rounded rectangle really gives the products a feel of quality and technical, but still easy to use. This isn't really possible in every product, for instance, like the AirPods, but Apple usually tries to make some kind of hint at this rounded rectangle, for instance, the AirPods case. Products that don't really have this rounded rectangle, for instance, the Apple HomePod, don't really fit that well in the Apple universe, in my opinion.
Okay, so let's round off this box a little bit and see what it looks like. Oh, yeah, that's starting to look more like Apple already. That's pretty easy. I guess they don't really do that much in the design, but you know.
Just kidding Apple, truly nice. Don't get mad at me. I actually had this realization while I was out running the other day and added this last minute into the video. I think this is really a newer development and the Apple design style. Before, Apple followed the success of the MacBook Air by trying to make their products look as thin and light as possible.
But now I think they played that out as much as they can and they're moving toward products that look as thick and heavy as possible. This really pushes more in the quality direction rather than the ease of use direction. Products that are a bit heavier when you pick them up generally are higher quality and last longer.
So making the products look heavy just emphasizes the idea of quality even more. Now that we got the forms figured out, let's move on to the details. The first detail to talk about is the continuous surface. For these rounded boxes, you may think that Apple just opened up any 3D design program, built a little box and rounded off the corners. It's a bit more complicated than that.
Apple actually makes a continuous surface between the sides and these rounds to make something that really flows and looks a lot less clunky. Design and engineering world, this is called making services continuous, so G3, G4, G5. They also do this really good on their more freeform products like AirPods. This gives Apple products a soft appearance while still looking minimal and somewhat geometric. If you open up an Apple product, you would see how complicated the inside of the product looks, but the outside is kept as clean and minimal.
and few details as possible. They give the products an easy to use but still performance kind of look. This is really only possible because of Apple's engineering skills. What's interesting is Apple will even take details that are close together and kind of harmonize them to give them one look to really make it look less complicated than it really is.
The ports on the side of the MacBook is a good example. They're all in line, they're all of similar shape, they all look the same, to make them one single visual element. So let's add in some antennas and try to do it in a way that kind of meshes with the... the form a little bit so it doesn't look too busy oh yeah that's that's pretty cool already i think the antennas kind of fit in well in this this corner of the product they take a little bit more attention but i think for something that should be complicated it still looks nice and simple so let's keep moving so moving on to a smaller detail that i think you've seen a lot of apple products sharp little cuts since apple's really focusing on the performance aspect of their products these days one detail apple adds is this sharp cut classic example being the notch lid on the macbook Not only does this add to the performance feel, but it also adds as a great visual marker of where to open the computer.
They also use it on air vents and mechanical connections. A lot of other companies don't really do this that much because sharp edges don't feel so good on your hand, but Apple seems to stick with it. Also, creating a sharp edge on a mass-produced object, like something die-cast or injection-molded, is a bit harder to do and is one of those ways that Apple makes itself stick out from the pack.
So let's take this idea of a sharp cut and make a little vent design on our product and see what it looks like. So looking at the underside of our product, let's add in some of these sharp cuts and some vents and see if that makes it a little bit more happily. Oh yeah, that gives it more of a performance kind of feel. Now it doesn't just look like a soft box, it looks like a very high quality soft box. So the final detail I want to get to is probably the one you've been waiting for.
Logo, It wouldn't be an Apple product unless there was an Apple logo just blatantly plastered over it. The Apple logo is not only a brand marker, but it's really become a design feature. Sometimes it's a bit annoyingly visible, like at every Starbucks and every TV show ever made. While Macs used to use the illuminated Apple logo, Apple's really switched to something more metallic to really push this, again, premium quality idea. So let's put an Apple logo on our product and see how Apple-y we can make our Apple product look Apple.
So let's slap an Apple logo on this puppy and see that brings it up to speed. Wow, okay, yeah. Now it's a, you know, very clearly an Apple product. There's no mistaking that now.
But it also kind of does something, you know, it fills it in the top surface a little bit. Moving on to a finishes. It wouldn't be an Apple product without one main material and that is aluminum or aluminum. materials and finishes have always been a big part of Apple's design strategy. In the early 90s, this was the use of transparent plastics and colorful plastics, which weren't really common for computers at the time.
These days, Apple focuses pretty heavily on aluminum. Apple products are finished with like this nice satin finish that's really great to touch and feel. If you got a MacBook or an iPhone or an iPad, you'll know what I'm talking about. Not only feels great, it is very approachable.
It makes you want to pick it up. but it also feels very premium and high quality. It's also pretty long lasting and durable, which is really nice. And I think that's also one of the reasons why you see a lot of old MacBooks floating around on Craigslist.
So let's go ahead and make this box an aluminum box. Pretty quality, but still approachable, just like Apple likes to do. Moving on to monochrome.
You know, when I asked a couple of people what they thought of Apple products, I think a lot of people brought up white plastic. Apple usually makes its products one single color, really, again, to focus on this kind of monolith idea. And this is either aluminum or just white or black plastic, which is the standard. Or when they get colors, it's usually a single color throughout the product. So I think we probably have to add a foot to the underside of this product so the metal isn't scraping up whatever it's sitting on.
Let's keep it monochrome and just put some black plastic on it, see if that retains the Apple look. Oh, yeah. that's definitely looking pretty Apple-y.
Apple. Finally, moving on to color strategies. I think Apple's use of color is also something really interesting.
The bread and butter is definitely this raw aluminum and space gray thing, and then the white and black plastic. Since Apple released the iPhone, I think they started experimenting with colors a little bit more. This gives Apple a little bit more of a fashion-y, trendable thing.
I guess it also helps them justify releasing a new phone every year, which may or may not actually be different. But either way, they seem to follow the general modern design trends. Usually more expensive products are kind of darker muted tones. Cheaper products are usually more fun, lighter. saturated tones.
So we got our raw aluminum motor router thingy. Let's see if we can make some more options. Oh yeah, there we go.
We got some other colors, probably I would say like pretty modern. You know, maybe it also needs like a red or orange or something, but looks good. So finally moving on to a difficult topic for Apple, sustainability.
So I think the biggest problem that Apple has with its design process is making products that are difficult to repair. Most of Apple's design work is great. However, they kind of fall short in this area.
If you look on repair websites like iFixit, the repair scores for Apple products are usually pretty low, but maybe they're getting a little better in the last couple years. I don't know. Let's see if we can help put Apple in the sustainability direction. Let's make something that's easy to open up and repair if it breaks. Oh, yeah, there we go.
That's filling it out a little bit more. We got the screws so you can open it up. Moving on to recycled and reduced materials. This is actually the area of sustainability where Apple seems to be doing the best so far, at least according to their website. They are trying to use recycled materials in their products, and their aluminum comes from recycled aluminum.
Although that's kind of a freebie, because I think most of the aluminum in the world comes from recycled aluminum. Moving on to the next thing, non-stainless components. I'm so annoyed that the iPhone and the AirPods can't use the same freaking charger. that every other product in the world uses.
It's also a bit annoying because it creates a lot of unneeded electronic waste. You have to make extra cables, which all go in the trash at some point. And let's add some USB-C ports to the back.
All hail USB-C. I think we got a pretty dope looking Adelpo router thing. It's not only cool, but should also be functional, theoretically.
I don't have the budget to manufacture this like Apple does, so we're gonna call it good for now. Thanks! We got it! So that's my little overview of the Apple product design style. It's premium, it's minimal, it's high quality, and we pay a lot more for it.
Thanks for watching, now I have to get back to work so I can pay Apple for even more products.