The London Evening Standard spoke with Jonathan Ive yesterday about Apple and design which I thought was rather nice. At parts it sound a bit canned, like Apple PR check it over before he sent back the answers, but there’s some pearls of wisdom like the one below.
Q: When you are coming up with product ideas such as the iPod, do you try to solve a problem?
A: There are different approaches — sometimes things can irritate you so you become aware of a problem, which is a very pragmatic approach and the least challenging. What is more difficult is when you are intrigued by an opportunity. That, I think, really exercises the skills of a designer. It’s not a problem you’re aware of, nobody has articulated a need. But you start asking questions: what if we do this, combine it with that, would that be useful? This creates opportunities that could replace entire categories of device rather than tactically responding to an individual problem. That’s the real challenge and very exciting.
