Thank You For Disrupting

CHAPTER 1STEVE JOBS

ON USER EXPERIENCE, DESIGN AND TIMELESSNESS

When Steve Jobs passed away, Bill Gates said that Jobs’s influence would be felt for “many generations to come.”¹ Tim Cook, who succeeded Jobs at Apple, went even further, speaking of “thousands of years from now.”²

History will remember Jobs for the seismic impact he had on the world of computers, especially in making them popular and accessible to all. What is also extraordinary is the way in which he was able to pivot his company several times. As Apple changed, so did its primary competitor: IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, in that order. Jobs’s influence will mark the world forever, and his thinking will inspire hundreds of innovative business models.

In 1993, a book was published about Chiat\Day, the leading Californian agency that later became part of the TBWA network. It was entitled Inventing Desire.³ That’s what Steve Jobs did. He invented tomorrow’s desires.

All in One

When the iPod (and later the iPhone) came out, it was a real surprise not to find any instructions inside the package. Steve Jobs believed that users of his products should be able to use them instinctively. This might seem easy, but determining the most intuitive path requires a colossal amount of work. Jobs introduced what would be later called a “seamless user experience,” known today as a “frictionless customer experience.” Fluidity is the new norm.

At the launch of the Mac in 1984, Apple created an ad that referred to George Orwell’s novel ...