Apple Design Team reveals obsessive process behind iPhone 13 and Apple Watch

(Prototype credit: Shutterstock)

Apple tree is a notoriously secretive visitor that just officially reveals what it'south been working on at advisedly curated events and live streams. But our sibling publication Wallpaper has been granted exclusive access to the Apple Pattern Team.

While Wallpaper wasn't given access to any work being done on the rumored iPhone fourteen, MacBook Air 2022 or AirPods Pro 2, it did go a taste of the obsessive arroyo Apple takes to designing and finessing its products.

Within Apple tree Park: in this earth exclusive Wallpaper* was granted unprecedented access to the Apple tree Design Squad. Hither, we see a model maker assembling a digital crown onto an Apple Watch Series 7. Read more: https://t.co/VVmon3wgLt pic.twitter.com/kRcDsR2xoJDecember ix, 2022

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For example, Wallpaper discussed the Apple Watch's pattern process with Cupertino's designers. The team explained how it pondered over a series of questions when it came to a concrete notification organisation or the smartwatch. The designers had to carefully think most how strong, how long and how natural the haptics in the Apple Watch should feel.

When discussing the Apple Watch Serial 7, which tops our best smartwatch listing, the design team noted that the debut of a larger display was born out of iterative blueprint created by working closely with the engineering science team. And this partnership dates all the style dorsum to the first model and its iconic Digital Crown, which arguably sits in the middle of design and engineering science.

"Nosotros wanted to merge software and hardware," designer Molly Anderson told Wallpaper. "The crown came from referencing the history of watches and realizing we needed to take physical mechanisms and tactile inputs to make Apple Spotter feel really unlike from the idea of an iPhone on the wrist."

AirPods: Lending an ear

AirPods Pro — (Paradigm credit: Henry T. Casey)

The same tin be said of Apple'due south arroyo to the AirPods. Wallpaper was told that development of the wireless earbuds started more than a decade agone. It saw human factors researcher Kristi Bauerly researching the "crazily complex" human ear to inform an earbuds blueprint that tin be plant on our best wireless earbuds listing.

"Nosotros moulded and scanned ears, worked with nearby academics, focusing on outer ears for the earbud design and inner ears for the acoustics," said Bauerly.

Apparently, thousands of ears were scanned creating a database from which the design process tin can offset. If you lot're enjoying the AirPods Pro's fit and feel, that's why.

Never phoning it in

iphone 13 pro back showing camera array — (Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

If you've wondered why the Apple tree went for a trio rear cameras in a pseudo triangular layout prepare in a rectangular module, well that'southward down to the obsessive design, besides.

More simply slick aesthetics, the focus on delivering phone photography that merits a spot on our all-time phone cameras list required another meeting of design and software and hardware engineering science.

Wallpaper explained Apple tree's design team had to consider how the iPhone 13's design has to take into account how the photographic camera lenses were grouped and delineated, all the same as well consider how the software could evoke a sense of working with dials and traditional traditional analogue equipment.

This not only took a load of enquiry, but also pouring over vintage cameras and even perusing their typefaces and control layouts. Once once again, that ease of use one gets when using the iOS photographic camera app, too as the virtual feeling of tacitly adjusting zoom via a software punch, is from the labors of the Apple Design Team.

Inside Apple Park: in this world exclusive, Wallpaper* was granted unprecedented access to the Apple Pattern Team. Designed by Foster + Partners, the campus opens onto a large park, planted with 9,000 trees. Read more: https://t.co/UJSRpQaqxU pic.twitter.com/b6bZYqdsUGDecember nine, 2022

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Design Unlike

With that in heed, it's no surprise that the image in Wallpaper'south article shows off a workspace that seems to have more than in common with those of mode brands or high-end interior design agencies.

Snaps of the iPhone 13 Pro's camera module and Apple Sentinel Digital Crown being assembled give us the impression of a bespoke jeweler's workshop rather than the initial process for devices that'll be shipped in the millions.

Inside Apple Park: in this world exclusive, Wallpaper* was granted unprecedented access to the Apple Design Team. Here, a model maker assembles camera modules for iPhone 13 Pro photographic camera lenses into cosmetic models. Read more: https://t.co/0vrp2XFlPC picture show.twitter.com/1ZoWWhoFyXDecember 9, 2022

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That workplace is actually split up from Apple tree'due south main Infinite Loop camps, over a mile away in a building that doesn't have the centre-catching circular design of the master HQ, yet is impressive in its own right.

And based on Wallpaper'due south extensive reporting, the spirit of Apple co-fonder Steve Jobs still looms large. Do check out the total Wallpaper commodity, available online and in impress, for the complete breakup of its journeying into Apple's world of design.

Roland Moore-Colyer is U.Thou. Editor at Tom's Guide with a focus on news, features and stance manufactures. He oft writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he'southward as well got an involvement in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, frequently with a expect of curiosity on his face.