Where Form Met Function

Aesthetics matter. Form matters. Form matters even more when it enables function. In this respect Apple and Steve Jobs really did help create modern computing. Nevertheless, as Kevin Drum explains here there were very good reasons why PCs trounced Apple in the computer business (I write this as someone who loves my Mac). In time, however, we’ll probably look back on the development of personal computing as a messy, collaborative affair in which many companies played important roles. They all helped “change the world”.

As Tim Berners Lee puts it, Jobs’ most important insight was:

[T]o insist that computers could be usable rather than totally infuriating!

Steve was a champion of usable technology – even sexy technology. Intuitive on the outside and extensible and cool engineering on the inside.

The geeks among us need to be at the same time deeply insistent technically on beautiful, clean, extensible design inside, and utterly impatient as naive end users about the outside.