23 comments

  • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, over 5 years ago

    I think that one thing that companies like Google or Facebook have over Apple in terms of design is a more modern and more open company culture: they encourage designers to iterate, share, publish case studies, blog…

    As opposed to Apple, where you get the feeling everything is the result of a very rigid, very strict process that isn't as permeable to the outside world.

    So paradoxically, while Apple is great at coming up with new ideas and innovations (Apple Watch, 3D touch, touchbar, face ID…) those ideas tend to not be as well-designed as they should be.

    In other words Google might not come up with the idea for the touchbar, but if it did implement one I'm pretty sure it would be more useful than the one on my macbook.

    14 points
    • Dirk HCM van BoxtelDirk HCM van Boxtel, over 5 years ago

      Can I go on a tangent, and highlight touchbar as a failure? (total case of "imo")

      13 points
      • Doug OrchardDoug Orchard, over 5 years ago

        It is. As Apple fanboi I, myself drew a line and said I don't want the cruft. No Touchbar laptop for me.

        7 points
      • Account deleted over 5 years ago

        The touch bar is absolutely terrible.

        2 points
      • Jason O'Brien, over 5 years ago

        It's bad. I'm constantly resting my hands in the wrong position and inadvertently pressing "keys." Esc is hard to find and the lack of feedback on it is disconcerting (as a power user I use ESC all the time to get out of dialogs).

        I turned off the context switching because I was tired of the display going nuts as I moved around in an application and switched applications, I'm glad I don't suffer from seizures because I probably would have had a fit.

        0 points
    • Mike Wilson, over 5 years ago

      Agree completely about open company culture. Apple's culture of secrecy seems to be evolving into a massive problem for the efficiency of the organization and their ability to innovate (and hilariously, the secrets always end up getting leaked anyways). Their product line is expanding and fragmenting every single year, and it's increasingly clear to me that their old culture is not scaling well to meet the increased demand on their teams.

      Google also has advantage of not being a 40+ year old company. You cannot imagine the sheer amount of legacy systems, bureaucracy, old management theories, and ineptitude that probably still exists from 1980s and 1990s Apple.

      ...but all of that said, I personally believe Material Design to be the worst, most heavy-handed and gratuitous design system in use by a major tech company today. Its poor implementation across many Android apps is the biggest reason I switched to iOS recently. iOS is still the most user-friendly OS on the market today. But in the future? who knows.

      1 point
  • Jon MyersJon Myers, over 5 years ago

    Somebody is trying to get a job at Google.

    Depends, Google also ran Nest into the ground.

    8 points
    • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, over 5 years ago

      ran nest into the ground? care to elaborate?

      3 points
      • Darrell HanleyDarrell Hanley, over 5 years ago

        I personally don't think it's fair to say that Google ran Nest into the ground, but here's my understanding of events.

        Google acquires Nest, things are going ok, Nest hires a ton of people and Google is, at first, patient. Then years go by and Nest doesn't really put out any major products. Some people blame Google, some people blame Tony Fadell. Fadell is former Apple and basically set himself up as the Steve Jobs of IoT devices, so lots of projects getting killed for not living up to his standards.

        Meanwhile, Google acquires Dropcam, which at the time had really started picking up steam in the IoT, and they do it without Fadell's input and throw it onto Nest. Fadell and Dropcam's CEO are polar opposites of one another and basically come to hate one another. Fadell starts shitting on Dropcam acquisition hires, and Dropcam's CEO starts publicly talking about how he regrets selling his company to Google/Nest.

        A year later, Google restructures into Alphabet, and Nest is now its own company independent of Google. This posed two problems for Nest: Alphabet won't fund Nest to the same extent Google would, and Nest can't hide behind the massive advertising revenue that Google makes. Alphabet expects to see results now, not at some point in the future.

        Fadell leaves, he's replaced by Marwan Fawaz, who came from the Motorola acquisition.

        I'm against the opinion that Nest has been run into the ground, but Nest is supposed to be the key in Alphabet's IoT play, and it so clearly isn't anymore. Yeah, they make sensors and cameras still and the product line has finally filled out, and I'm sure that the Nest thermostat still sells well, but the biggest product in Alphabet's IoT future is at Google, and it's Google Home. Really, it should have been nest that lead the smarthome assistant, that operates as the hub for all your IoT devices, but really Nest has ceded that future Google, Apple, and Amazon. Now they're just another device maker playing in a larger ecosystem.

        2 points
    • Joel CalifaJoel Califa, over 5 years ago

      You think Joshua Topolsky is trying to get a job at Google?

      22 points
    • James LaneJames Lane, over 5 years ago

      Rather than running Nest into the ground, is it not plausible that they integrated a lot of the tech into the new range of products and buying Nest was just a patent thing?

      0 points
  • Cory DymondCory Dymond, over 5 years ago

    The second paragraph is written by an insane person. Not surprised to see Topolsky in the byline. My mans is hyperbole incarnate.

    The product design is, at best, par for the course. It looks like an extension of their previous products and the general overall vibe of product design in the space these products exist in. I have no idea how someone can be so enamored with these products to write this:

    You could imagine them in your living room, your den, your bedroom. Your teleportation chamber.

    About this: Pixel 2

    Not that they aren't pretty or well designed... but to suggest that the design on display here is "like something future humans had made; people who'd gotten righteously drunk with aliens" is absolute bananas ass bonkers.

    6 points
  • Ken Em, over 5 years ago

    Except when they are not. The GMail iOS app is a complete mess.

    6 points
  • Christoph OChristoph O, over 5 years ago

    Very dramatic. I don’t understand why design at Apple and Google has to be seen as this competition where one company has to be awesome and the other terrible. They are different, they have strengths and weaknesses. If both do amazing stuff, we all gain. Let’s cheer good work, let’s criticize where it’s deserved. But let’s not look at it as a death match. YOLO

    2 points
  • dave fdave f, over 5 years ago

    Think Josh is just upset Apple have blacklisted him for events

    1 point
  • Scott SmithScott Smith, over 5 years ago

    I almost think what's more important is that Google has started to find their own design style and voice thats actually pretty solid. Is it better than Apple? Some of that is subjective. However, they do have a clearer vision for Google design than they did just a few years ago.

    1 point
  • Peedu TuiskPeedu Tuisk, over 5 years ago

    Some fonts don't load on this page Some fonts don't load on this page

    1 point
  • Murtuza Banani, over 5 years ago

    that's true!

    0 points
  • Jrtorrents Dorman , over 5 years ago

    Truth be told, Google is getter better at design! they just have to fix that aweful gmail Pp.

    0 points