Apple picker In March a Czech translation of the book will be published Jony Ive – the genius behind the best products Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, which charts the life of a design icon and longtime Apple employee. Jablíčkář is now available to you in cooperation with the publishing house blue vision offers the first exclusive look under the hood of the upcoming book – a chapter titled “Jony Saves”…
Jony saves
Jony's first major task at Apple was to design the second-generation Newton MessagePad. The first Newton wasn't even on the market yet, but the design team already hated it. Due to a busy production schedule, the first model had serious flaws that Apple executives, as well as designers, wanted to correct.
Even before the Newton hit the market, Apple revealed that the planned cover, which was supposed to protect its fragile glass display, did not allow space for expansion cards, which were supposed to slide into the slot at the top of the device. The design team was tasked with quickly developing a portable package, including a simple slip-on leather case, and that's how the device went to market. In addition, the Newton's speaker was in the wrong place. It was a palm rest, so when the user held the device, it covered the speaker.
Hardware engineers wanted the second generation Newton (codenamed "Lindy") to have a slightly larger screen for easier handwriting recognition. Because the pen was attached awkwardly from the side, an element that Newton greatly expanded optically, they wanted the new version to be significantly thinner. The original looked like a brick, so it only fit into larger jacket or jacket pockets.
Jony worked on the Linda project between November 1992 and January 1993. To get the hang of the project, he started with his design "story" - that is, he asked himself: What is the story of this product? The Newton was so new, flexible, and different from other products that formulating a primary purpose for it was not easy. It transformed into a different tool depending on what software was running on it, so it could be a notepad or a fax machine. CEO Sculley referred to him as a "PDA," but for Jony, that definition wasn't very accurate.
"The problem with the first Newton was that it didn't relate to people's everyday lives," says Jony. "It didn't offer a metaphor for users to latch on to." So he set about fixing it.
To most people, a cap is just a cap, but Jony paid special attention to it. “It's the first thing you see, the first thing you come into contact with,” says Jony. "You have to open the lid before you can put the product into operation. I wanted it to be an extraordinary moment.”
To enhance this moment, Jony designed a clever, spring-operated latching mechanism. When you pushed the cap, it popped up. The mechanism used a tiny copper spring that was carefully calibrated to have just the right amount of swing.
In order for the cover to leave space for the expansion cards at the top of the device, Jony created a double hinge that allowed the cover to bypass any obstacles. When the cover opened, she jumped up and moved to the back where she was out of the way. "Lifting the cap up and moving backwards was important because such an action was not specific to any culture," Jony noted at the time.
“Tilting the cover to the side, such as on a book, created problems because people in Europe and the US wanted to open on the left, while people from Japan wanted to open on the right. To accommodate everyone, I decided that the cap will open straight up.'
In the next phase, Jony turned his attention to the "randomness factor" - special nuances that can give a product a personal and specific character. Newton relied on the so-called stylus, so Jony focused on this pen, which he knew users liked to play with. Jony solved the width limitation and integrating the pen into the MessagePad itself by focusing on placing the storage slot at the top. “I insisted that the cover flip up and over the top, just like a stenographer's notebook, which everyone understood, and users saw Lindy as a notebook. A quill placed at the top of where the spiral of binding would be in the case of a stenographer's pad made the right association. This became a core element of the product story.”
The slot was too short for a full-sized stylus, so Jony created a stylus that cleverly slid out. Like the cap, the pen was based on an ejection mechanism that was activated when the user pressed down on its top. To give it the right weight, he made a pen out of brass.
All his colleagues fell in love with the product. “Lindy was a dazzling moment for Jonathan,” says fellow designer Parsey.
To make matters worse, Jony had an extremely short deadline to complete, accompanied by enormous pressures. The first version of Apple's pioneering portable device was negatively marked by its appearance in the cartoon series Doonesbury. Cartoonist Gery Trudeau portrayed Newton's handwriting recognition skills as desperate, giving the device a blow to the belt from which it never recovered. Because of Trudeau, the first Newton MessagePad had to be replaced as quickly as possible.
All the pressure fell on Jony. "If you realize what the profit losses are every day you're behind schedule, it forces you to focus," he says with typical British exaggeration.
To the amazement of his colleagues, Jony was able to move from initial design to first foam concept in two weeks, faster work than anyone had ever seen. Determined to finish the project on time, Jony went to Taiwan to solve production problems. He camped in a hotel near the plant where the Newton was manufactured. Together with a hardware engineer, they solved the problems with the pen's pop-up mechanism in the room.
Parsey remembers Jony pushing him to create something extraordinary. “To create the best design, you have to live and breathe the product. The level Jonathan was working on was becoming a love affair. It was a process full of excitement and exhaustion. But if you are not willing to give everything to the work, the design will never be great.”
When it was done, Jony's colleagues were shocked and amazed by both the new Newton and Jony, who had joined the team only a few months earlier. Apple executive Gaston Bastiens, who was in charge of Newton, told Jony that he would win any design award. It almost happened. After the launch of Linda in 1994, Jony received several important industry awards: Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award, Industrie Forum Design Award, German Design Innovation Award, Best of Category award from ID Design Review and the honor of becoming part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.
One of the things Rick English noticed about Jony was his aversion to prices. Or rather a reluctance to accept these awards in public. "Early in his career, Jony Ive said he wouldn't go to these events," says English. “That's an interesting demeanor, that really set him apart. It was disgusting for him to climb the stage and accept the awards.'
Jony's MessagePad 110 was on the market in March 1994, just six months after the original Newton went on sale. Unfortunately, there was no chance factor to save the Newton, as Apple made a series of serious marketing mistakes - pushing the first device to market before it was ready and bombastically advertising its capabilities. Faced with unrealistic expectations, the Newton never achieved significant sales volume. Both generations of Newtons also suffered from battery problems and poor handwriting recognition, which Trudeau derided. Even Jony's stellar design couldn't save it.
Phil Gray, his former boss at RWG, recalls meeting Jony in London after his MessagePad 110 came out. “Looking back today, the Newton is like a brick. But at the time, it was a portable device that nobody had before,” says Gray. “Jony was frustrated because even though he worked hard on it, he had to make a lot of compromises because of the technical components. Subsequently, however, he got into a position at Apple where he could not only influence the technical component, but also manage and control these processes at the same time."
The MessagePad therefore represented a significant transformation in Apple's manufacturing strategy. The MessagePad 110 was the first Apple product to be fully outsourced to Taiwan. Apple has partnered with Japanese firms before (Sony for monitors, Canon for printers), but has generally manufactured its products in its own factories. In the case of the MessagePad 110, Apple moved Newton to Inventec. "They did a really amazing job, they did really well," says Brunner. "In the end, the quality was really high. I gave credit to Jony for that. He almost collapsed, spending a huge amount of time in Taiwan to get everything right. It was beautiful. Nicely done. It worked really well. It was an amazing product.”
This decision resulted in Apple relying on external contractors to create its products. However, the practice proved controversial ten years later.
Soon after Linda's project was completed, Jony had the idea to simplify the design of Apple's bulky CRT monitors, which were arguably the company's least sexy product and one of the most expensive to manufacture. Because of their size and complexity, plastic monitor case molds could cost over a million dollars to make—and there were dozens of models at the time.
To save money, Jony came up with an idea for a new design with interchangeable parts that can be adapted for several monitor sizes. Originally, monitor housings consisted of two parts: a bezel (the front element that houses the front of the cathode ray tube) and a pocket-like housing that enclosed and protected the back of the CRT. Jony came up with the idea of dividing the case into four parts: the frame, the middle part of the pocket and the two-piece back pocket. The modular design allowed both the middle and back pocket to remain the same for the entire product line. Only the front bezel was produced in different sizes to accommodate different monitor sizes.
In addition to saving money, the new case also looked better. Its modified design allowed for a tighter fit of various CRTs, making them appear smaller and more aesthetically pleasing. Jony's design also introduced a few new elements to the group's design language, including a new vent and screw solution. "The new approach is more subtle," says designer Bart Andre, who designed the cases based on Jony's design. It seemed that his work could interest anyone.
Great quote. I'm looking forward to the book.
Thanks for the chapter, I'm clear - can't wait :)