Abstract S1:E2 –Ian Spalter: Digital Product Design

As an assignment for my Design Fundamentals class in NYU Tisch, I give my thoughts on Netflix’s Abstract S2:E2 ‘Ian Spalter: Digital Product Design’.

I really enjoyed this episode because digital product design is something that I’m very passionate about. One thing that I found really interesting in this episode, which I hadn’t fully realized before, was how Steve Jobs basically created the foundation for modern digital product design, especially on mobile. Without the iPhone, it’s possible that the world of mobile UI/UX would be vastly different today, and without the iPhone, we probably wouldn’t even have Instagram (along with many other apps). I think it’s interesting how with digital product design there is a lot of building off of others’ ideas, inventions, and designs, whether it be Ian Spalter re-designing Instagram or the idea of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) itself.

I also really liked how Ian Spalter encouraged his team to explore designs that are really “out there” instead of shutting them down for it. I’ve been in work environments before where people aren’t as open to change or embracing new ideas, which was very discouraging, so I can see the merits of Spalter’s great approach to managing a product design team.

I can’t imagine how stressed our and discouraged Spalter must have been following the Instagram update that received such negative feedback. In the case of Snapchat, bad design is really what led to their demise. The bad re-design not only led to a hit on their stock price, but a slow decline in daily active users as well. Instagram’s addition of stories actually lead to Snap’s decline, which is an interesting way in which designers can copy off of one another and create something even better (though the ethics there are questionable).

Overall, I really enjoyed the episode, but I wish that they had gone more in-depth into product design. Perhaps it’s because I’ve worked in it myself that it didn’t seem as in-depth as other episodes, but I wish that they had covered more of the specifics of their UI/UX design process and not have focused so much on other non-design related details in the episode.