Updated: 12/2/05; 3:46:42 PM

 Saturday, November 19, 2005
To Apple designer Jonathan Ive, design and ease of use are as important as function
jive.jpg An all too rare interview with the man behind the design side of Apple computer, Jonathan Ive. For more than a decide, like many of you, I've enjoyed, admire and greatly respected the products that came out of the mind of this man. He has inspired me in so many ways that it's cool to start to see him get some of the hard earned recognition for his accomplishments.

From the article:

Ive is no ordinary designer, and Apple is no ordinary company. The Essex expat is responsible for some of the most recognisable gadgets of the past decade.

In 1998, as head of design at Apple in San Francisco, he revolutionised computer design, and helped reverse the company's failing fortunes, with the original iMac - a computer placed inside a coloured translucent television.

It was followed by increasingly clever updates - an iMac that looked like an angle poise lamp and one that looked like a flat LCD television screen.

Then came the iPod. At the turn of the millennium Ive and his team of designers realized they could fit a computer hard drive into a box the size of a deck of playing cards and use it to store thousands of songs. For the first time it was possible to carry your music collection in your pocket.

Its success was not just due to clever electronics. Even critics said it looked fantastic, and was ridiculously easy to use. Much copied, but never bettered, there are 30 million iPods out there today.

10:45:54 PM