Those who question innovation, think innovation

I hate to be one of the 50 million people who’ve mentioned the iPhone within the last 36 hours, but I’m going to anyway. Clearly, Apple has done something amazing for the mobile space. You can feel the innovation just by looking at this thing. Watching the video series on the iPhone site is impressive. But I’m really referring to this post by Jason Fried, it just happens to involve the iPhone.

Across the web, 37signals is known for innovative thinking, and it shows not only by their products, but their everyday blog posts. With the iPhone, a lot of people (including myself) got blown away by “its ability to do this and that,” (and that’s not to mention its visual appeal), and forgot about what truly matters: usability. Sure, it’s cool, but is it practical? Probably so, but while the rest of the world is wooing over this new toy, Jason Fried doesn’t lose focus. He goes straight at the core by mentioning an interface that requires you to stare at. He’s not necessarily claiming that as a flaw, but an interesting observation. But the fact that he’s looking past the bells and whistles, focusing on the usability of the iPhone (even though it’s Apple, and we’re supposed to just accept what they give us as perfect) says something about the way he thinks. He doesn’t let Apple’s reputation influence his thoughts.

Innovative thinking requires you to not be easily impressed, look past aesthetics, and find the true reasons for a product to exist; what problem(s) does it solve? Then again, if the design is talented enough to carry itself, and out-weigh usability issues, you may be in an entirely different category. And probably the same category Apple is in.