I had a casual, brief water-cooler-type conversation yesterday, which went something like this:
Me: I noticed you're using Keynote instead of PowerPoint. How do you like it?
Them: It's great.
Me: Did it take a lot of time to make your presentation look so designerly?
Them: No. I think Apple designed it so that you can't produce anything that's not beautiful.
That really blew my mind. What a simple yet utterly audacious vision for any offering: help your customers make their lives more beautiful.
What if your car made you drive with the smoothness of Fangio? If your food processor helped you cook with the elegance of Batali? As Virgina Postrel has been saying for a while, the desire for beauty in our lives is more basic than we think. Perhaps those of us who create things for other people to use should be going beyond functionality, usability and visceral aesthetic concerns to deliver the realm of the poetic existence.
a friend of mine - one of spain's well known dealers of contemporary art - recently "changed to apple" and got herself one of those powerbooks. since that day she has not yet stopped complaining - swearing, to be precise:
what is this stupid screen design? who do these apple guys think they are? outside everything beautiful... but the desktop..? the browser? ... this is children's aesthetics ... rounded... nice and soft *that i do not hurt myself...* ... who do they think they are???... expect me to go on *safari* with these boys???
somebody tell mr jobs to grow out of puberty!
now!
Posted by: jk | 24 September 2005 at 12:48 AM
but, diego, i 100% agree to poetry... or grace as tom peters would say... 100%...
it just does not always have to be a children's riddle, my friend would add
Posted by: jk | 24 September 2005 at 01:04 AM
There's always therapy.
Posted by: Diego | 24 September 2005 at 07:34 AM