In Chapter 6: "Keyboard Derby." by Ken Kosienda, the author begins by explains that after working on a WebKit word processing project, he wanted to transition into a manager position. Soon after, Kosienda realized that he was unprepared and miserable in his new job. He was interested in a customer-focused position and later joined a new super secret project, "Purple". Kosienda then goes in depth about the struggles of making decisions and building the right user interface for the new cellphone. There were many things that needed to be considered before making a decision. For example, the wanted to use WebKit but "were worried about ease of programmability". The software engineers wanted to develop something that borrowed as much as possible from Mac. They also decided to replace AppKit with a new user interface system, UIKit. The software engineers essential wanted to fit the essentials of the Mac onto a piece of technology that could fit in your pocket. I think this quote describes what they were trying to do the best "...he went through updates on apps, designs, and thoughts for making a computing system built around touch" (Kosienda, 122). Through every step of the development, Kosienda highlights the importance of demos. Even if the demo went poorly, it still meant there was possibility for progress. These were the questions asked during the demo and progress stages: "Does this demo close the prototype-to-product gap, even a little? Are we seeing enough positive change over last time? Is this technology or app on track?" (Kosienda, 122). After owning an iPhone for many years, it's interesting to know what was going on behind the scenes from the very beginning and what the user interface goals were at the time.
Keyboard Derby
fernanda villalobos