Apple’s Design Problems Aren’t Skeuomorphic

I’ve written about and linked to Kontra — a self-described “veteran design and management surgeon” who is “perennially in search of complex problems to operate on” — once again cuts through the bullshit when he analyzes the recent shake-up in Apple’s upper-level management:

“In the end, what’s wrong with iOS isn’t the dark linen behind the app icons at the bottom of the screen, but the fact that iOS ought to have much better inter-application management and navigation than users fiddling with tiny icons. I’m fairly sure most Apple users would gladly continue to use what are supposed to be skeuomorphically challenged Calendar or Notebook apps for another thousand years if Apple could only solve the far more vexing software problems of AppleID unification when using iTunes and App Store, or the performance and reliability of the same. And yet these are the twin sides of the same systems design problem: the display layer surfacing or hiding the power within or, increasingly, lack thereof.”

Thus bursting the bubbles of hopeful nerds everywhere and reminding us that Apple’s software design issues go well beyond faux leather and on-screen knobs. He ends, however, on a hopeful note:

“[U]nlike any other company, we hold Apple to a different standard. We have for three decades. And we have been amply rewarded. If Apple’s winning streak is to continue, I hope Jony Ive never misplaces his Superman cape behind his Corinthian leather sofa…for he will need it.”

Well put.