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The Evolution of User Experience and Apple Computers: An Archival Project

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Archival Analysis

By remaining faithful to the philosophies that set it apart from other PC manufacturers, Apple has successfully differentiated itself from its competitors. Apple has also sought to reflect consumer feedback in its product development to meet some of the popular demands. Four different areas of Apple products will be explored: Body & Peripherals, Computing Capability, Graphic User Interface & Operating System, and Third-party Compatibility. 

Body & Peripherals

Apple’s design of the computer’s body has evolved over time to serve its consumers better. For its first models, which co-existed with typewriters, Apple appealed to its consumer base with the familiarity of the design, such as with the Apple II – first released in 1977 – whose advertisement stated, “Familiar typewriter-style keyboard makes it easy to enter your instructions” (“Apple II, 1977”). As can be seen from the photo of the Apple I in The Guardian (Fig. 1), it features a large keyboard atop which a monitor can be placed, just like how paper comes out of the typewriter (Gibbs). 

Fig. 1. Gibbs, Samuel. “Apple I.” The Guardian, Guardian News & Media, 1 Apr. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2016/apr/01/40-years-of-apple-in-pictures. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. 

The changes made to the keyboard layout reflect Apple’s efforts to meet consumer demand. Having inherited the QWERTY layout of the typewriters, some minor changes in Apple’s keyboard layout could be observed from retroTECH’s collection of four Apple computers. For instance, keys such as Ctrl, Caps Lock and Function keys were either in different locations or nonexistent; it was only with the keyboard for the Power Macintosh 8500/120 (1995) that the keyboard layout took on its modern form (see Fig. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

The similarity of Apple II keyboard layout (with the Shift and Caps Lock key at the bottom-left corner) to that of the typewriters is explainable. As it was released during the time of the typewriters and some of the programming languages supported only capital letters, capitalizing function would have been more important. The later change in Performa 550’s keyboard layout to resemble modern keyboards by moving Caps Lock, Control, and Tab keys, as well as the introduction of the arrow keys, shows Apple’s efforts to appeal to the consumers through familiarity, as it follows IBM’s 1984 101/102-key Model M keyboard layout which was adopted by the International Standards Organization in 1994 (Beam), even overriding Steve Jobs’s belief that users should use the mouse instead of the cursors to navigate the OS (Friedman).

Fig. 2. Keyboard of Apple II. The Caps Lock and tilde keys are on the bottom-left corner, arrow keys are arranged horizontally, and the control key is above the shift key. No function keys exist.
Fig. 3. Keyboard of Performa 550. Control key assumed its modern position, and so did Caps Lock and Tab keys. Arrow keys are still arranged horizontally. 
Fig. 4. Keyboard of Power Macintosh 8500/120. With the addition of the Function keys and the rearrangement of the arrow keys, the keyboard resembles the modern keyboard layout.
Fig. 5. Keyboard of iMac
Fig. 6. Keyboard of MacBook Pro (2021). A large trackpad is integrated into the laptop body. 

The design of the computer’s body changed over time as well. Apple computers started out looking like typewriters with the Apple I’s wooden body before moving onto white plastic bodies such as those of the Apple II and Performa 550. Later, Apple’s design became impactful with the colorful curvaceousness of the 1998 iMacs, which met the desire of the people to “‘get away from beige because it is associated with work’”, as put by HP’s PC marketing executive in 2002 (Lohr). Later, the sleek, modern-looking aluminum unibody design of the 2008 MacBook Air became the new norm for Apple computers, with Jonathan Ive, Apple’s former Chief Design Officer, stating that it “[made] the new MacBook fundamentally thinner, stronger, and more robust” (McLean), improving the portability and durability of Apple’s laptops.

Whether they sought for consumer familiarity with Apple I, conformity with the rest of the market with the Performa 550, uniqueness with iMacs, or pioneering the trend with the lightweight MacBook Air, the change in the design of Apple computers shows that Apple has strived to provide the best experience for its consumers. 

Fig. 7. Photos of Apple II, Performa 550, Power Macintosh 8500/120, iMac, and MacBook Pro. From left to right, in order. 

Computing Capability

An essential part of the user experience that has influenced the development of Apple computers has been their computing capability: to manufacture faster and more reliable computers.

One of the ways that Apple achieved this goal was by using processors with higher clock speeds. A clock signal plays a crucial role in controlling the opening and closing of transistors on circuits, determining how much information a device can process in a unit time. 

Before the 2000s, the sentiment that Apple computers lack computing power compared with their competitors was shared by many Mac users. An article in the Landscape Architecture Magazine, targeted towards landscape architects, states that while “Mac typically does the same task using a lower clock cycle…PCs boast a higher clocking speed” (Sipes). While a qualitative comparison could not be made with PCs from the 1990s, the low computing power of older Macs was observed when Performa 550 displayed a warning message about insufficient disk space when an attempt to run a jigsaw puzzle, calculator, and internet browser simultaneously was made.

With this in mind, Apple’s 1990 promotion of the Macintosh IIfx as the “fastest commercially available microcomputer in the world” signals Apple’s acceptance of user complaints that Macs are perceived as being underpowered in large organizations (PC User, no. 129). The release of M1 chips and the transition to Apple Silicon from Intel processors in 2020 reflect Apple’s endeavor to provide a better user experience, as consumer criticisms about limited computing power and overheating from Intel chips accumulated (Higgins).

Apple’s migration from PowerPC to Intel processors in 2006 and then to in-house Apple Silicon in 2020 shows Apple’s efforts to manufacture faster and more reliable devices. It appears that this has borne fruit, with the M1 chip having been hailed as one of the fastest and most energy-efficient processors on the market following its release (Higgins). While high speed benefits the users who use Macs for professional purposes to a greater degree, elements such as improved battery life and reduced heating benefit a greater proportion of the users of Apple computers, as they improve the device portability, an important concern for a company where more than 70% of computer units sold are laptops (Potuck). 

Fig. 8. Apple Computers’ Clock Speeds over Time.

Graphic User Interface (GUI), Operating System (OS)

Apple’s GUI has evolved to better accommodate the user’s needs since it replaced the command-line based DOS interface in the Apple Lisa (1983). 

The changes in the GUI were subtle for the Apple computers in retroTECH. Between the Performa 550 (1993) and Power Macintosh 8500/120 (1995), there was little difference in terms of the GUI between these two models, although the iMac’s macOS 9.2 set itself apart with the introduction of a rudimentary taskbar. A similar trend can be seen when going back even further to the Apple Lisa’s GUI, where not much aesthetic design difference can be noted in comparison with the Performa 550 (see Fig. 9, 10, and 11). 

Fig. 9. “GUI of Apple Lisa.” Punchkick, Punchkick Interactive, 7 Aug. 2015, https://www.punchkick.com/blog/2015/08/07/how-apple-has-shaped-the-user-interface. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023.
Fig. 10. Performa 550. No taskbar exists. 
Fig. 11. iMac. A rudimentary taskbar can be spotted at the bottom-left corner of the screen.

A change that could be called revolutionary for the Apple computers’ GUI took place when macOS X was released in 2001. After acquiring Steve Jobs’ NeXT and Jobs taking the helm of Apple once more, the new visual design called Aqua was implemented with “glossy, liquid-like buttons, translucent menus, and bright blue scrollbars”, as well as the Dock, which served as Apple’s version of the taskbar (“How Apple Has”). To this day, macOS’s GUI is continuing to evolve, with aesthetic changes in places such as the application icon, toolbar, and settings. It is almost as if it is becoming more similar in look to the iOS’s GUI, perhaps reflecting Apple’s efforts to create an exclusive ecosystem of Apple products (see Fig. 12 and 13). 

Fig. 12. “OS X.” Punchkick, Punchkick Interactive, 7 Aug. 2015, https://www.punchkick.com/blog/2015/08/07/how-apple-has-shaped-the-user-interface. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. 
Fig. 13. macOS Ventura

Third-party Compatibility

Concerns about Apple products’ compatibility with certain software have been around for a long time. In a magazine article in Landscape Architecture published in the 2000s, it was stated that while more and more programs were being made to be compatible with both PCs and Macs, they were forced to use PCs because of the lack of compatibility of landscape architecture programs with macOS (Sipes). More programs in the market were written for the PCs, as they were more widespread (Pietromonaco). 

Despite more programs joining the list of those compatible with both macOS and PCs, the lesser degree of third-party compatibility of Macs remains to this day, as shown by the existence of PC emulators for Macs. In 1990, more than 30,000 units of a program called SoftPC, which creates an IBM-compatible PC inside any Macintosh, were sold. According to Apple executive John Leftwich, this was partly due to the perception that Macintosh was about two years out of date (PC User, no. 133).

This lack of compatibility had been addressed by Apple in 2006, following its switch from PowerPC to Intel processors, with the introduction of a functionality called “Boot Camp.” As Apple computers started using Intel chips, Macs became compatible with Microsoft Windows, and Apple was able to meet the demands of consumers who wanted to install Windows (which is based on Intel chips) on Apple computers for reasons of software incompatibility or out of personal preferences. However, following Apple’s 2020 switch to Apple Silicon, the company had decided to discontinue the provision of Windows compatibility in the new Macs. This shows that while Apple is willing to provide user convenience to some degree, it is firmly committed to its core identity of having an OS that is different from those of the PCs.

Conclusion

Apple computers have evolved over time. They went through several form factors and materials before assuming the sleek, metallic design that we have come to associate with Apple computers today. Initially perceived as sub-par, Apple has come a long way with its processors and computing power, now having the capability to design one of the most efficient, tailor-made chips in the market. Apple has played a pioneering role in the implementation of the GUI in personal computers, and it has provided for controlled third-party compatibility with the Boot Camp functionality.

Apple has always been different from other PCs in the market, but despite the inconveniences that the difference caused for the users, it drew greater benefit from the differentiation. In 1990, Apple was “hovering just outside the Top 50, with a small core of enthusiastic fans” (Farena) as described by Lars Farena, an author of an Australian magazine PC User with a witty analogy of a music chart.

Today, Apple is one of the most well-regarded technology companies in the world, with about 10.7% of the global market share by shipments in Quarter 4, 2022 (Alsop), and its unique ecosystem sets it apart from other PCs in the market. In a way, Farena’s prophecy came true: Apple has survived, and it was by staying exclusive through the preservation of “the distinctiveness that had created their appeal in the first place” (Farena). 

Fig. 14. Alsop, Thomas. “Personal Computer (PC) Vendor Shipment Share Worldwide from 2011 to 2022, by Quarter.” Statista, 21 Feb. 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/269703/global-market-share-held-by-pc-vendors-since-the-1st-quarter-2009/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. 

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Spring 2023 ENGL 1102 C2, How the User Experience Has Influenced the Rapid Evolution of Apple Computers