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The Human Interface Group, which originally drew up the Human Interface Guidelines, still exists, according to an Apple spokesman, though he refused to supply any details on its composition or place in the company. However, sources both inside and outside of Apple say that the HI Group has been cut from over 30 people two years ago to fewer than 10. "There may be a handful of people left," said a former Apple employee. Of this handful, none are versed in interaction design -- the key to the Human Interface Guidelines -- and none are involved in specifying any of Apple's current products, say others familiar with the group.

Some say this state of affairs is a direct reflection on Steve Jobs, who has a "definite antipathy for interface designers," says Tognazzini, who worked with Jobs on the original Macintosh and Lisa projects. In fact, some at Apple say that Jobs was closely involved with the QT4 design, even dictating the overall look, though Apple spokesman Matt Hutchinson refused to comment. "Jobs refuses to acknowledge and realize the importance of interaction research," says Tognazzini.

Before Apple, user design was an afterthought to technology companies, if it was thought of at all. There was little need, after all -- technology wasn't supposed to be fun and easy; it was the exclusive domain of buzz-cut, white-jacketed lords of the lab. It's not too much to say that the 1984 introduction of the Macintosh ("The computer for the rest of us") changed that for good, making the interface a notable and salable item. As Tognazzini says, "The rampant copying of the Mac interface testified to the bottom-line effectiveness of good UI design." Do you honestly think there would have been a Windows 1.0, let alone 95/98, without the Mac?

Apple is now posting a profit and products such as the iMac and iBook have become minor cultural icons, so it seems strange to talk of the company as in trouble. However, when a brand jettisons the core of its identity, the thing that distinguishes it as it alone, the brand becomes just an empty name -- New Coke without Old Coke, Disney without Mickey. And there's no doubt that the Mac's friendly identity is what gets people onto the Mac platform and keeps them there.

But that ease of use, based on a 20-year-old document that has apparently become as much samizdat as scripture in Jobs' Apple, is not what the Mac OS will offer in the future, if QT4, Sherlock 2 or other recently proposed OS elements are the wave of the future. (At this summer's Macworld Expo in New York, Jobs demonstrated a Unix-like "File Browser" he said would replace the Mac's familiar Finder, which provides the virtual space where you place and organize folders and files. The crowd sat silent.)

The faithful, the true believers, are hard to alienate -- but if you mess with the very foundation of their faith, expect some disaffection. New users, too -- once they get over the initial rush of having an orange clamshell for a computer -- may find little refuge from the frustration and confusion of other platforms if the Mac of the future follows the QT4 precedent.

Apple deserves great praise for making computers fun and friendly -- on both the inside and the outside. Now, if it could only learn from the New Coke story, and the benefits of sticking by its original formula.
salon.com | Sept. 30, 1999

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