As I start to write this post I’m sat on the tube. My MacBook Air is safe in its sleeve in my bag. My iPhone is what I’m writing this on. My iPad is at home in the living room. Next to the bed lies my iPod nano and in my ‘things’ organiser my first iPod.
Each of these products have and continue to give me immense joy. Right now, on this crowded tube I just want to be alone with all of them and morn. Tell them it’s ok and how much they mean to me. That’s the impact Steve Jobs and Apple’s products has had on me. I was a late Apple product owner but an early user. My dad started using a Mac back in 1988 and a few years later we’d be taking turns (there are 5 of us so the queue was long) playing Sim City, Tetris and Hugo on his other Mac. An iPod was my first Apple product. It took my heart. The iPhone changed everything and took an even bigger piece of my heart. So did the iPad. I’ve always been a magpie for shiny, new technology. Products that make me smile when I use them, when I look at them, or take them out of my pocket or bag. Products that connect with me emotionally and make my inside purr. Steve and Apple have achieved that in each and everyone and that is something very special.
Great products aren’t easy to make and great experiences aren’t easy to craft. Everyone of us working in the design industry know of the internal battles being fought and of great and not so great minds who don’t think alike and the challenges that brings to the table. Not the least in the ability to achieve the vision. It’s easier said than done. We know how tempting it is after a hard day to give up and give in on things we don’t really believe in or agree with. How spirits can be dampened and we start questioning what we do. But we also know of the days when we love what we do, when the pieces fall into place and when the end result makes us proud and we say to ourselves “This is why I do it”. Steve Jobs and the products he helped bring to this world are my greatest inspiration. For not giving up. For striving for better and never settle.
Various people told tales yesterday of how their iPhone died or run out of battery. How their iPad screen cracked and of other incidents. As if the products and the world knew. Coincidental or not, with the announcement of Siri on Tuesday products that “know” got a completely different meaning.
I will continue to be grateful for what Steve brought into this world, what he gave us, the design and UX industry. For how he changed people’s lives.
Farewell, Steve. We hardly knew you, and there isn’t anyone who knew us better
– John C Abell, Wired article We Called Him Steve
