Jax Wechsler

Apple design process

There is an article from Business Week: Apple’s design process about a presentation given at SXSW by Michael Lopp, senior engineering manage from Apple about their internal design process.

I liked the idea about paired meetings where each week they have 2 meetings.
– One is a free for all – a meeting to innovate with no constraints….totally blue sky. (FORM)

– The 2nd is a meeting that is more structured , and where constraints are considered…..where the how and the feasibility is really worked out. (FUNCTION)
Tim Brown and Barry Katz in Change by Design discuss a similar approach whereby they maintain that both divergent and convergent thinking are required for innovative design and problem solving. (p68)

Convergent thinking drives us to solutions (left brain thinking)

Divergent (right brain thinking)

“The process of the design thinker, rather, looks like a rhythmic exchange between the divergent and convergent phases, with each subsequent iteration less broad and more detailed than the previous ones. In the divergent phase, new options emerge. In the convergent phase it is just the reverse: now it’s time to eliminate options and make choices.”