Ken Kocienda

Hundreds of millions of people use Apple products every day; several thousand work on Apple's campus in Cupertino, California; but only a handful sit at the drawing board. Creative Selection recounts the life of one of the few who worked behind the scenes, a highly-respected software engineer who worked in the final years of the Steve Jobs erathe Golden Age of Apple.

inside Apple's design process during the golden age of Steve Jobs

Creative selection

Lucas Morales Sousa

I expected to get technical insights on product design process but most of the tips are industry standards nowadays, but in the book, they are presented with a generous amount of Apple fandom. 
I couldn't finish the book, but if you are new to product design or loves Apple, go for it.

Heiki Riesenkampf

Some good stories, but too vague about specific takeaways.

Abhimat Gautam

This book gave some really fascinating inside stories of software development at Apple. While I felt that the wider lessons the author was drawing about his stories were sometimes a little too far reaching and sometimes repetitive, I absolutely loved his inside stories of working on software at Apple, like Webkit and Safari, and the development of the iPhone keyboard. I think he also articulated very well the value of some of Apple’s internal technology culture. I particularly appreciated his discussion of _the intersection_ and how deeply pervasive the thinking was in software development at Apple. The idea of an intersection between the liberal arts and technology, and realizing the correct balance between heuristics and algorithms.

Bouke van der Bijl

Enjoyable insider’s view on how product innovation works at Apple.

There is a recurring theme between this book and Skunk Works, in both cases there were small and secretive teams that were given a clear goal and technical freedom. With this freedom they achieved marvelous innovations. The writer of this book made multiple innovations while developing the autocorrect feature for the iPhone keyboard, which is now in everyone’s pocket. 

Key quote: “Design is the way it works”. I played around with a Pixel phone recently and it’s just such a garbage experience compared to an iPhone. The scrolling and tapping and keyboard and everything are just such an inferior experience to the iPhone, and this book gives some indication as to why that is.

Creative Selection

Keven Wang

Good insight. You would enjoy it more if you are a programmer

Arturo Hernández

The narration gets way to technical at times, which is not wrong at all, however the back and forth between story and technical document gets tiring after a couple of chapters. It’s nice to read about The Man, though.

Swastik

An insightful and easy to read account of how product design and engineering at Apple works. There are some really interesting anecdotes, but the book overall felt a little light on detail. Having said that, it's a nice, quick read. Recommended.

Alex grey

I didn’t finish the book. I read 5 chapters out of the 10. It’s a waste of time and it’s more about the author than apple. I feel like each chapter could have been so much shorter. Some things were interesting but I generally didn’t feel like it’s a book that make me hooked in any way. After reading some amazing books I better know how to not waste my time on something like this. 
2 stars as it’s not so horrible, and because in every bad book, you get something out of it. 
Maybe it just didn’t have what I expected to see from the book, or what it promised in the introduction

brendan sudol

Super interesting peek at how Apple develops products / software. The user empathy and attention to the detail, up to the highest levels, is inspiring.

Creative selection inside Apple's design process during the golden age of Steve Jobs

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