Jobs' Impact on Design

    One of many things Jobs had changed was the aspect of design on a product. In the audio recording "Steve Jobs' Greatest Legacy may be Impact on Design," it is mentioned that Jobs had not invented the computer but had redesigned them to be more friendly to the public. In the recording, Laura Sydell says "The first Apple II computer, which came out in 1977, was designed to be more like a home appliance. Up until then, you had to know how to put them together yourself. But it was the design of the Macintosh that set the public on fire." She gives the design and idea of a product that can be used by the average person the credit for Jobs' success. Jobs even aimed to use the best materials for all his products as Sydell mentioned later on. In another recording named "How Steve Jobs Changed the World of Design," John Maeda says that Jobs' greatest design achievement is "the Apple organization, an organization that actually cares about design more than technology." Beforehand, he also says that was successful with the iPod because its design created an emotional experience that was unmatched by any other MP3 player already on the market. I must agree with these statements because I do believe product design plays a significant part on the products' sale and liking. Jobs' computer were affordable to average person, which reached out to a larger crowd than other computer companies, and already assembled, which further supported the product's aspect of being user-friendly. His MP3 player, the iPod, had a feature that allowed the buyer to become truly involved in his or her music by purchasing individual songs digitally and to create different playlists for different people sharing the same iPod, for different occasions, or for whatever means the owner wanted. I must wonder though; if Jobs had not been so focused on design, but more on the technology of his products, how would have the company's direction, products, and course change?

Citation:

• "Steve Jobs' Greatest Legacy may be Impact on Design." All Things Considered 6 Oct. 2011. General OneFile. Web. 11 Mar. 2012
• "How Steve Jobs Changed the World of Design." Morning Edition 7 Oct. 2011. General OneFile. Web. 11 Mar. 2012

Links:

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"Personal Computers"

    I read this text from the "U*X*L Encyclopedia of U.S. History." It gave a description of the development of personal computers. The text talked about the people responsible revolutionizing a room-sized computer to the smaller, more convenient, modern computer. Among them were Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Steve Wozniak. Jobs and Wozniak had originally founded the Apple company to sell reasonably price computers. With Jobs' marketing skills and Wozniak's engineering expertise, the two were able to create the Apple I, II, a new disk drive, the Lisa, and the Macintosh before leaving Apple due to financial issues.
    Jobs returned to Apple years later to establish an alliance with Microsoft for the permission to use the Internet Explorer Web browser in the company's products. Apple soon released the iMac, and later on, Jobs sought to go after the digital music market and succeeded.
    It was Jobs' marketing skills that made it possible for Apple to prosper. He had built the company and led it to failure only to return, create new computers, and conquer the music industry. He did not begin alone though. Jobs worked with Steve Wozniak in the creation of Apple. Wozniak had not only designed a minicomputer that consisted of a keyboard, a central processing unit, and a display screen, but also a disk drive that opened the computers to more uses. Without Wozniak to help build the company, this new disk drive, and design Apple products, would have Steve Jobs still been able to become the man he is remembered as.

MLA Citation:
Benson, Sonia, Daniel E. Brannen, Rebecca Valentine, Lawrence W. Baker, and Sarah Herman. "Personal Computers." U*X*L Encyclopedia of U.S. History. Vol. 6. Detroit, 2009. 1222-228. Gale Cengage Learning. 2009. Web. 4 Mar. 2012.

Link:
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