Apple's Lisa: A Product Design Story


The purpose of this book is twofold. First, to tell the story of Apple’s Lisa computer product design—and its process, people, and results. Second, to provide an educational experience for the book’s readers in product design process, design thinking, and product design innovation.

Lisa was Steve Jobs’ original dream machine—it was not the Macintosh, as many have indicated. And the Apple company product design did not start with the Macintosh, as some have also implied—it started with Steve Jobs, Jerry Manock, and the Apple II. It is important to tell the Lisa product design story, not only because it is a historical account of the early days of product design at Apple—and in Silicon Valley as well—but also because this story has not been completely, nor always accurately, told in the past. And then, often told by those who were not even there!

It is hoped that this book will also be an educational product design guide. Though the so-called product design “tools of the trade” have changed significantly since Lisa was developed, the basic design process elements, methods, and phases have not changed much at all. In this book are the details of how a sophisticated and revolutionary computer product was designed and developed in the early days of Apple and Silicon Valley, at least from a product design perspective. It is also about much of what is still necessary and essential for quality product design work today.

Herein is not some slick portfolio of fancy sketches, artistic renderings, and professional product photos, all choreographed to look brilliant and innovative. It is a straightforward textual and visual history of what took place in developing the Lisa product design.

Sample pages from Apple’s Lisa: A Product Design Story are available in the Apple Books Store. This iBook is filled with vignettes, images, and information that, in some cases, few have seen or known previously. Each iBook section is a single self-contained verbal and visual depiction of a key topic of the Lisa product design development story, including people, processes, and principles. The page layout has been designed for easy navigation of desired information, with minimal text and maximum visualization.

To review the Apple iBook edition of Apple’s Lisa: A Product Design Story in the Apple Book store, get a sample of it, see a few pages of it, or to purchase and download it, please click on this link: Apple's Lisa: A Product Design Story.

Apple®, Apple Computer®, iPad®, iBook®, iBooks®, iBooks Author®, Lisa®, Macintosh®, MacBook®, MacBook Pro®, and Mac OS® are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

SITE DISCLAIMER: please see MenuBar>Home>Site Disclaimer.