Somewhat surprisingly to me, BusinessWeek has become a high profile advocate for design, and especially industrial design. They have regular articles, both in print and on the web, and they even have a design competition.
This article by Helen Walters has some interesting info about the design process at Apple. Their recent successes and the importance credited to industrial design in those successes makes this all the more interesting.
This reader comment I found especially insightful:
“Apple’s design process is not original, but its proactive, open-minded and creative culture allows for the process to flourish.”
In other words, good process is important, but so is the staff and the culture. And I would add: support from the top. Great designers, engineers and product developers can be just as easily hobbled by a corporate culture that doesn’t understand and support design as they can by poor process.
Tags: apple, businessweek, design, design process