Mac at 40: User experience was the innovation that launched a technological revolution

Technological innovation requires solving difficult technical problems, right? Okay, yes. And not. As the Apple Macintosh turns 40, what began when Apple prioritized the soft concept of “user experience” in its flagship product in 1984 is clearly justified today by its successful products since then.

It turns out that designing with usability, efficiency, accessibility, elegance and pleasure in mind is worth it. Apple’s market capitalization now exceeds $2.8 trillion and its brand is as associated with the term “design” as are the best fashion houses in New York or Milan. Apple turned technology into fashion and did it through user experience.

It started with Macintosh.

When Apple announced the Macintosh personal computer with a Super Bowl XVIII television advertisement on January 22, 1984, seemed more like a movie premiere than a technology launch. In fact, the commercial was directed by filmmaker Ridley Scott. That’s because founder Steve Jobs knew that he wasn’t just selling computing power, storage, or a desktop publishing solution. Rather, Jobs was selling a product for human beings to use, one to take into their homes and integrate into their lives.

It was no longer about computing. IBM, Commodore, and Tandy made computers. As a human-computer interaction scholarI think the first Macintosh was about making humans comfortable with a new extension of themselves, not as computer geeks but as everyday people. All that “computer stuff” (separate circuits, cables, motherboards, and monitors) was neatly packaged and hidden inside a sleek integrated box.

You weren’t supposed to dig deep into that box, and you weren’t supposed to dig deep into that box, not with the Macintosh. The everyday user would not think about the contents of that box any more than he thought about the seams of his clothing. Instead, they would focus on how that box works. made them feel.

Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial is as iconic as the product it featured.

Beyond the mouse and desktop metaphor

As for computers, was the Macintosh innovative? Sure. But not because of any particular computer advance. The Macintosh was not the first computer to have a graphical user interface or employ the desktop metaphor: icons, files, folders, windows, etc. The Macintosh was not the first personal computer designed for home, office, or educational use. It was not the first computer to use a mouse. It wasn’t even the first Apple computer to be or have any of these things. He smooth applereleased a year earlier, it had them all.

It wasn’t any technical thing that the Macintosh did first. But the Macintosh brought together numerous advances that aimed to give people an accessory, not for geeks or techies, but for stay-at-home moms, soccer dads, and eighth graders who used it to write documents, edit worksheets, calculation, drawing and playing. . The Macintosh revolutionized the personal computing industry and everything that came after it because of its emphasis on providing a satisfying and simplified user experience.

While computers typically had complex input sequences in the form of typed commands (Unix, MS-DOS) or multi-button mice (Xerox STAR, Commodore 64), the Macintosh used a desktop metaphor in which the computer screen presented a representation of the physical surface of a desktop. Users can directly click files and folders on the desktop to open them. It also had a single-button mouse that allowed users to click, double-click, and drag and drop icons without typing commands.

He Xerox high had first exposed the concept of icons, invented in the work of David Canfield Smith. 1975 Ph.D. dissertation. The 1981 Xerox Star and 1983 Apple Lisa had used desktop metaphors. But these systems had been slow to operate and still cumbersome in many aspects of their interaction design.

The Macintosh simplified the interaction techniques necessary to operate a computer and improved operation at reasonable speeds. Complex keyboard commands and dedicated keys were replaced by point-and-click operations, drop-down menus, draggable windows and icons, and system-wide undo, cut, copy, and paste. Unlike Lisa, the Macintosh could only run one program at a time, but this simplified the user experience.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh in 1984.

The Macintosh also provided a user interface toolbox for application developers, allowing applications to have a standard appearance by using common interface widgets such as buttons, menus, fonts, dialog boxes, and windows. With the Macintosh, the learning curve for users was flattened, allowing them to feel competent in a short time. Computing, like clothing, was now for everyone.

A good experience

Although I hesitate to use the clichés “natural” or “intuitive” when it comes to worlds manufactured on a screen (no one is born knowing what a desktop window, a drop-down menu, or a double-click is), the Macintosh was the first personal computer. make user experience the engine of technical achievement. In fact it was simple to operateespecially compared to command line computers at the time.

While previous systems prioritized technical capability, the Macintosh was intended for non-specialist users (at work, school, or home) to experience the kind of immediate usability that today is the hallmark of not only most products. Apple, but also the value of the entire industry in consumer electronics, smart devices and computers of all kinds.

According to Market Growth Reports, companies dedicated to providing user experience tools and services They were worth $548.91 million in 2023 and are expected to reach $1.36 billion by 2029. User experience companies provide software and services to support usability testing, user research, voice-of-the-customer initiatives and user interface design, among many other user experience activities.

Today, consumer products rarely succeed in the market based solely on their functionality. Consumers Expect a good user experience and you’ll pay a premium for it.. The Macintosh that obsession began and demonstrated its centrality.

It’s ironic that the Macintosh commemoration of January 2024 was never about technology at all. It was always about people. This is an inspiration to those seeking to achieve the next technological breakthrough and a warning to those who would dismiss user experience as a secondary concern in technological innovation.

This article is republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the Original article.