So many of us today can recall our first time obtaining an iPhone. We all had to sit down and learn how to use the gestures, the apps, and all the other amazing features for the first time. I myself remember when the iPhone was starting to get really big and actually common. Suddenly, people were a lot more interested in what could be accomplished on such a small touchscreen.
The iPhone radically changed our relationship to technology because it totally reframed our digital devices from tools we would occasionally use into basically being an extension of our person. Before the iPod, most personal tech felt like equipment or utilities, but with the iPod came personalized and portable capabilities.
I would argue that with the iPhone came communication, entertainment, navigation, and social lives. A user’s whole life could now be dealt with on a single device as opposed to several devices.
As a designer, I would say that the iPhone brought a culture shift. Before, designers in tech were more focused on task-centered endeavors, but now the iPhone has enabled us to think about experience-centered design. With a multi-touch interface, designers can now think more about gestures, animations, and flows.
Also, now with the iPhone, I would argue that designers have the larger, more daunting task of having to take into account the constant presence of their work. The nature of the iPhones now is that they can come anywhere we are, forcing us as designers to think about the many contexts their designs can live in. Whether the user is walking, community, at work, at home, or whatever the case may be, the designers have to take into account what their creations might be doing. This means thinking about micro-interactions, accessibility, interruptions, notifications, and a whole host of other features.
Another huge impact I would argue iPhone had on culture as we know it as especially design culture, is the fact that design is now expanded into ecosystems. Famously, Apple hosts all kinds of products that can be synced together. Cross-device continuity is huge and is another thing designers must consider nowadays. It’s not always about the iPhone at times, sometimes it’s about how interactions will flow across the user’s other devices.
In the end, I would say that the iPod and iPhone didn’t just change phones; they changed expectations, behaviors, emotional relationships with technology, and so much more. For interaction designers, this means taking into consideration how to make experiences intuitive, contextual, human-centered, and integrated into everyday life, in ways larger than before.