A product leader argues that deciding what NOT to build is crucial in consumer financial apps. Avoiding feature creep in systems like document hubs and notification centers saves years of maintenance overhead. The key is addressing user needs through simple, existing solutions rather than building complex platforms.
Apple's iPhone Duo represents a shift toward gestural computing, where folding screens and mechanical interactions create new user gestures beyond traditional touch. The device's variable, multi-modal surface enables multiple form factors—book, laptop, tablet—marking a 2.0 evolution that will eventually extend to other Apple devices while raising questions about the future of the traditional iPhone design.
Apple's iPhone Duo foldable phone succeeds through design system scalability across iPhone, iPad, and Mac rather than hardware innovation alone. By arriving seven years late with a mature software ecosystem, most apps were already compatible before the device launched. The company solved the awkward cover-screen problem by relocating navigation to the right side, allowing a near-normal iPhone canvas without requiring developer changes.
Apple's product design follows a consistent philosophy where objects closer to the human body have progressively rounder corners, measured using a 'roundness score' formula. The article reveals that Apple uses squircles (complex curves without discontinuities) rather than simple circles, with personal devices like AirPods and Apple Watch scoring around 50% roundness, while distant objects like displays score only 2–3%, following designer Naoto Fukasawa's principle that proximity to humans correlates with roundness.