5 Rules for Designing Products Like Apple

“For you to sleep well at night the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” said Steve Jobs when talking about designing products. Steve was in every sense of the word a perfectionist. And his drive to perfect every Apple product has undoubtedly paid off, Apple is now the most valuable company in the world and still growing with new products in the pipeline.

But how did Steve Jobs do it? And perhaps more importantly, how will Apple continue to design great products? The answer lies within five simple but strict rules of design.

Rule #1

Don’t skimp on sections of design just because they aren’t in the customers main line of sight.

Rule #2

Every employee in the company must truly understand what the product is, how it works, and how it will benefit customers or society.

Rule #3

Good design is produced by people who are motivated by failures and optimistic about change.

Rule #4

It’s harder to design a product that is simply beautiful than it is to stuff a product full of bells and whistles. The marketplace is looking for clean, flawless, and operational design.

Rule #5

Product design isn’t meant to stick out like a sore thumb, but rather a high quality product that people come to recognize as an extension of themselves.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. Check out the full video below which further discusses and illustrates the five rules of great product design.