Jobs: The design of ordinary things.

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Jobs: The design of ordinary things.

 With the recent death of Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO until few weeks ago of Apple there has been  an avalanche of praise and recognition to his career, from perennial competitors,  academics, management gurus to, why not?, Housewives in love with their iPhones or the latest fashion fad: an ipad in its latest version.

Doing all this aside, and giving a real perspective on things  Jobs could be many things at once , from its scary and enigmatic personality, perfectly described in an unauthorized biography called Icon Steve Jobs: the second greatest act in history of business written by Jeffrey S. Young, to be a fully- recognized persona by the industry for being a leader who was really ahead of his time (think about it: when one is holding an iphone or  back in the 80's you had a Mac, you really felt "a few years ahead of the time" ). Certainly the most accurate adjective that could describe him would be the visionary Jobs.

Some scholars may argue that his management was a revolutionary approach, a born innovator who could envision and create a series of products for which there was no market. That is, the vision of Jobs fulfilled the climax of any academic: to create a market for your product virtually from scratch, creating a psychological demand for them thus, they can be sold at relatively high price, unlike other similar products. Some of these things are a reality but the truth is that Jobs was anything but a perfect manager: his colleagues remembered him as brash, egotistical and with very little tact. I guess it would be difficult to behave differently if you are only twenty -years old and people are constantly reminding you that you're a genius.

However, in my point of view the greatest contribution Jobs ever made, without neglecting the other achievements, are his contributions to design products. Heard the phrase long ago that Apple was not really a technology company but a design company, I think there's enough truth in this assertion. Simplicity in design, functionality, elegance and neatness with which Jobs wanted to integrate the hardware and software of his products is actually the emblem of Apple and that has been characterized since the creation of the PC's (Apple, mac) to their latest products.

This highlights especially with competitors who offer solutions  already-complicated with excessive graphics and confusing functionality. Jobs  was king in that particular department, I could understand perfectly the sense of aesthetics and that simplicity make products easier, pleasant to use and therefore to increase the desire to obtain them.

The influence that the design of the products had on Steve's mind goes back to his youth. In an interview a few years ago, former Apple CEO John Scully (remembered as the man who fired Jobs away from Apple) says that all he really had in common with Jobs was a taste for design. In his case Scully was an expert on industrial design but remember clearly that from the beginning of Apple (when one could hardly imagine the graphical interfaces of today) Steve was really focused on providing the user with more aesthetic experience and functional features as possible to the products .

It's funny, now that everyone seems to think about Jobs and comment on his work and personal life. Few seem to recognize their contribution to the concept of aesthetics in technology. Steven Spielberg a few days ago  mentioned that he thought Steve Jobs was the Thomas A. Edison of our time. Other experts said that his wit was only comparable with that of Henry Ford. Without resorting to exaggeration I`d like to think  that Jobs's obsession with design and perfection makes him the Michelangelo of our time.

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