Apple Website Design through the Years
Apple are well known for their high quality and innovative design. In this article I look through the iterations of the online store throughout the years. This article was inspired by Apple related discussions on Brainfuel and Veerle’s Blog
The First Apple online Store (2000)
The first design of the online store showed the first use of the “aqua” tabs. As you can see from the formatting error, it mightn’t have been coded the best but in terms of looks it was revolutionary for the time. It still looks a lot better than most online stores around now.
The ads on the level use some of Apple’s older design language and you can see this page is in a transition from the mid 90’s look to the 00’s look. While the usability guru’s would kill it for lack of text it is clear and easy to navigate (provided you are not visually impaired)
The Glory Years (2003)
The 2003 website is a design classic in my view and the shows the best of Apple Design. The navigation is clear and uses intuitive blue link text. The product is well displayed and the top navigation bar looks warm and inviting (I just want to click those buttons).
The site offers much more product than it did in 2000 so the sidebars have become a necessary addition. The product presentation is great and in my opinion some of the nicest of apple’s designs. The “anglepoise iMac” is probably my favourite Apple ever. I also like the way that “Servers and Storage” are presented to like a Piano Keyboard on which one can create. This is a refreshing change from the rather Fridge-like shapes its competitors would present.
All in all a great site and one I’d love to have on my CV. Note to Apple: Hire that guy again.
The Downward Transition (2006)
The 2006 design shows an iteration of the 2003 website. The blue font for navigation has been replaced with more gray. The side navigation now consisting of 3 shades of gray instead of white gray and blue in 2003. It is a step backwards over 2003 especially with regard to advertising their product.
Where the 2003 website used multiple angles to show off the equipment the 2006 website used front-facing shots, leaving little difference between the systems. The screenshot on the monitors dominates the systems themselves and a quick glance would make you think all the systems are the same.
In fact 2006 looks like the year Apple fell out of love with the computer. The main screen real estate is given over to the only product nicely presented on the page the iPod Nano.
The Ugly One (2007)
I may be alone in my opinion but I can’t believe how wrong Apple have got this design. This is a company known for its innovation and design pedigree and here in 2007, they produce something resembling a default OSCommerce template. (Note the use of “Top Sellers” and “New to the Store”. Why do that?
Compare 2007 to 2003 is like comparing freshly bought meat to that which has been left at the bottom of the freezer for 3 months. The shininess is gone, the natural warm is missing from the navigation. The site looks tired and stale, the worst culprit being the “Leopard” background image for the top navigation. What might be difficult to establish from the screenshot below is apple placing a large margin from the top of the site to the browser window which does the site no favours.
The images have been saturated with white light making some of them hard to see e.g. The Mac Mini. As for the product itself, it has become more technologically advanced and with the iPhone they have an amazing product, but where is the design flair in presenting it. While the new iMac and Pro are beautiful bits of machinery, here they resemble just another box in a row of boxes.
My advice to Apple would be that just because the product is great it doesn’t mean you can get complacent marketing it. Even if the product is the best around, it doesn’t mean it will sell automatically. Just ask a younger Steve Jobs!
Additional Thought Apple’s decline is design is pretty well correlated with their affordability. Apple now offers some of the best value on the market. Is Apple becoming another commodity player? That is doubtful but a bit of innovation or high-end special editions wouldn’t go astray e.g. another Titanium MacBook or a pure carbon fibre cased laptop for the business traveller.
Posted 12.10.07