9 Lenses   |   Emergent Patterns   |   Design Ideas and Options   |   Adaptive Experimentation   |   Adaptive Iteration
Example

The option that led to the typography on the Apple Mac

Find ideasThe following extract from the text of the Commencement Address Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University in 2005 describes how Steve Jobs created the unintended option that contributed to the “wonderful typography” designed into the Macintosh computer.

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

This example highlights how design options are not always purposeful and do not always occur at or near the core of our field of view. The options that have the most potential are often found near the boundaries of our current activities or interests. They have the potential to add a different dimension or perspective.