Inside Steve's Brain - Leander Kahney [82]
On the software side, Jobs charged programmer Jeff Robbin with overseeing the iPod’s interface and interaction with iTunes. The interface was mocked up by designer Tim Wasko, the interactive designer who had previously been responsible for the clean, simple interface in Apple’s QuickTime player. Like the hardware designers, Wasko designed mockup after mockup, presenting the variations on large glossy printouts that could be spread over a conference table to be quickly sorted and discussed.
“I remember sitting with Steve and some other people night after night from nine until one, working out the user interface for the first iPod,” said Robbin. “It evolved by trial and error into something a little simpler every day. We knew we had reached the end when we looked at each other and said, ‘Well, of course. Why would we want to do it any other way?’”6 Like Jonathan Ive’s hardware prototypes, the iPod’s intuitive interface was arrived at through an iterative trial-and-error design process.
Jobs insisted that the iPod work seamlessly with iTunes, and that many functions should be automated, especially transferring songs. The model was the Palm’s HotSync software, which automatically updates the Palm Pilots when they’re hooked up. Users should be able to plug their iPod into the computer and have songs load automatically onto the player—no user intervention required. This ease of use is one of the great unheralded secrets of the iPod’s success. Unlike players before it, the iPod and iTunes alleviated the pain of managing a digital music collection. Most competing players made the user do a lot of work. To load songs, they had to manually drag tunes onto an icon of their MP3 player. It was a pain in the rear, and not something most people wanted to do with their time. The iPod changed that. Here’s how Jobs summed up the iPod’s easy operation to Fortune in five simple words: “Plug it in. Whirrrrrr. Done.”7
How the iPod Got Its Name: “Open the Pod Bay Door, Hal!”
While Apple’s engineers finalized the hardware, and Robbin and company worked on iTunes, a freelance copy writer was working on a name for the new device. The iPod name was offered up by Vinnie Chieco, who lives in San Francisco, and Jobs initially rejected it.
Chieco was recruited by Apple to be part of a small team tasked with helping to figure out how to introduce the new MP3 player to the general public, not just to computer geeks. The task involved finding a name for the device, as well as creating marketing and display material to explain what it could do.
Chieco consulted with Apple for several months, sometimes meeting Jobs two or three times a week while working on the iPod. The four-man team worked in strict secrecy, meeting in a small, windowless office at the top of the building that houses Apple’s graphic design department. The room was locked electronically, and only four people had access keys, including Jobs. The room had a big meeting table and a couple of computers. Some of their ideas were posted up on the walls.
The graphic design department is charged with designing Apple’s product packaging, brochures, trade-show banners, and store signage, among many other things. The department has a privileged position within Apple’s organization: it often finds out about Apple’s secret products well in advance of launch. To preserve secrecy, Apple is highly compartmentalized. Like a covert government agency, employees are given information on a strictly need-to-know basis. Various departments know bits and pieces about new products, but only the executive team is furnished with all the details.
To prepare packaging and signage materials,