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Wie vor einigen Tagen berichtet, wurde Apples Design-Chef Jony Ive mit dem Stephen Hawking Fellowship Award 2018 der University of Cambridge ausgezeichnet. Dieser wurde ihm am gestrigen Montag nun von der The Cambridge Union übergeben und Ive hielt die zugehörige Stephen Hawking Fellowship Lecture an der altehrwürdigen Universität. Darin sprach er über eine große Bandbreite an ungterschiedlichen Themen, wie seine Karriere bei Apple, Technologie im Allgemeinen und natürlich Design, wie The Independent berichtet.

So erzählte Ive, wie fasziniert er von dem ersten Mac war, den er jemals benutzte. Diese Faszination führte schließlich dazu, sich über Apple zu informieren und schließlich auch dort anzufangen zu arbeiten.

With the Mac, in 1988, I think I learned two things. Firstly, I could actually use it. I loved using it and it became a very powerful tool that helped me design and create. Secondly, and I think this is in some ways a rather embarrassing admission because this was at the end of four years of studying design, I realized that what you make represents who you are.

It stands testament to your values and your preoccupations, and using the Mac I sensed a clear and direct connection with the people who actually created the Macintosh. For the first time, I remember being moved by obvious humanity and care beyond just the functional imperative.

Spannendes wusste Ive auch zur Entstehung der Multi-Touch-Bedienung zu berichten. Das erste Mal befasste man sich bei Apple im Zeitraum 2002 bis 2003 mit dem Thema. Wohlgemerkt satte fünf Jahre vor der Präsentation des ersten iPhone. Das Ziel das man dabei verfolgte war es vor allem, dem Nutzer das Gefühl zu geben, dass er mit den Objekten auf dem Display tatsächlich interagiere. Als Beispiel nennt Ive dabei vor allem das Scrollen in einer Liste oder das Zoomen in Fotos:

This was a project that we came to describe as multi-touch. Some of you may remember the first time you experienced the interface. Perhaps it was on one of the first iPhones or later on an iPad. But multi-touch describes the ability to directly touch and interact with your content to be able to pinch to zoom an image or flick through a list with your fingers.

Irgendwann entdeckte man dann auch das Potenzial dieser Beidenung für die verschiedensten Anwendungsfälle, was letzten Endes dazu führte, dass man sich von der ursprünglichen Idee reiner Web-Apps verabschiedete und den AppStore ins Leben rief.

Importantly, it defined an opportunity to create applications with their own unique, very specific interface. So, not being generic but being specific inherently describes the application's function. We came to see that we could make applications purposeful, compelling and intuitive to use. And so, as the potential for a vast range of apps became clear, so did the idea for an app store.

I remain completely in awe, completely enchanted by the creative process. I love the unpredictability and the surprise. The whole process is fabulously terrifying and so uncertain. But I love that on Monday, there's nothing. There is no idea, there is no conversation, the room is silent, there's certainly not a drawing. Prototypes are way in the future. On Monday, there is nothing, but on Wednesday, there is. No matter how partial, how tentative. Now, the problem is: which Wednesday?"

Honestly, I can't think of two ways of working, two different ways of being, that are more polar. On one hand to be constantly questioning, loving surprises, consumed with curiosity and yet on the other hand having to be utterly driven and completely focused to solve apparently insurmountable problems, even if those solutions are without precedent or reference. And so, of course, this is where it becomes sort of ironic and teeters towards the utterly absurd.