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Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs

Ken Kocienda

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Summary

Ken Kocienda describes Apple’s software development during the Steve Jobs years, drawing on his work on the iPhone, iPad and Safari. He follows the use of prototypes, demonstrations and repeated changes to shape products. The account explores collaboration, craft, taste and the judgments made as ideas became working software.

  • SourceSt. Martin’s Press, Creative Selection · Book Details and licensed chapter 1, The Demo

Why read it Our view

Useful for building a process around working prototypes and clear feedback. Kocienda shows how a team can make progress through repeated demonstrations and changes, with craft and taste affecting the result.

Decisions from the book

Testing a winning keyboard design
  • Decision: Kocienda needed to fit a usable touchscreen keyboard into a very small area.
  • Action: He put several letters on each large key and paired them with dictionary suggestions, then demonstrated the design to Phil Schiller and Tony Fadell.
  • Outcome: The executives’ weak reactions led him to question the design and begin considering changes, even though it had won the internal keyboard contest.
SourceKen Kocienda, Creative Selection licensed excerpt on 9to5Mac · August 8, 2018; author excerpt, Schiller and Fadell keyboard demos and paper rectangle; reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press

Written about

  • Steve JobsWorkplace and product-development subject
    Kocienda describes developing Apple software and showing prototypes to Jobs, who used demonstrations and detailed feedback to guide product decisions.
    Source