Reductio ad Apple

After reading and being involved in a number of discussions about the value and virtues of design, I've come up with a special case of Godwin's law:

As a discussion about design grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Apple or the iPod approaches 1.

I think there's also a reverse version of the reductio ad Hitlerum we could call the reductio ad Apple--"Apple does X therefore X must be good."

Which isn't to say that Apple (or Nazi) analogies are always wrong--it's just that they are often strained, over-simplified and focused on styling.

I think Don Norman captured why Apple isn't a good yardstick for most design discussions in this Business Week article:

"I've been thinking hard about the Apple product-development process since I left," says design guru Donald Norman, co-founder the design consultants Nielsen Norman Group, who left Apple in 1997. "If you follow my [guidelines], it will guarantee good design. But Steve Jobs doesn't want good design. He wants great design, and my method will never give you that. That takes a rare leader, who can bring both the cohesion and commitment and style. And Steve has it."

Which is why I raise an eyebrow every time I hear "take the iPod, for example..."