There is little doubt that the Apple Macintosh changed the way that people use computers. Innovations like the graphical user interface (GUI), as well as the mouse, revolutionized the industry. Steve Jobs illustrated this in a commencement speech in Stanford back in 2005 when talking about how computer interfaces changed with the beautiful typography provided by the first Mac.
The impact, however, was not just for end-users. The Macintosh changed how software developers thought about their programs. The interface became more human, and developers began thinking about how this interaction takes place.
Apple leaped by producing a disruptive product that changed how end users provide input to a computer. The concept of point and click created a way to visualize a screen and expanded the types of uses for computer systems. IBM, Compaq, and Microsoft expanded on the idea and adopted the graphical user interface concept.
As the companies produced new versions, the changes to the GUI were moderate and based on improvements in video cards, computer processing units (CPU), memory, and other hardware. Microsoft dominated the market until the mid-2000s, and no disruptive innovation in user interface design took place until Apple released the iPhone and iPad.
The change was disruptive because it created a new type of computer device that previously did not have a category. Although the concept of the tablet computer existed, this innovation went beyond the obvious.
What Apple produced with the new line of product is a combination of a service-consumption device and simplicity in the user interface that allows customers to understand intuitively how to use the items. The company also served a wide range of users that consumed services such as the internet, movies, music, and email.
The biggest leap, however, was blurring the line between web pages and applications, where device users no longer saw or cared how these items differed. Users simply want to pick up the unit and consume their service.
More so, competition from other companies such as Samsung and Google with Android created a need for software developers to create applications that could be used easily on any platform. Writing an application for Apple, creating a web-based version, and creating a version for Android became too time-consuming and complex to maintain.
Traditionally, apps that run on Apple require the use of Swift or Objective-C, and Android applications are mostly written in Java. However, programmers need a way to develop applications capable of running on all platforms. As a response, the industry created and released a diverse set of tools that helped programmers develop applications that could run on all devices.
Among these tools were products like Xamarin that allows programmers to develop apps that run on iOS, Android, and Windows. Ionic and React Native were also released to provide the multi-platform design.
The idea of being able to run on distinct systems continues to be a need as it lowers the development cost of software and code maintenance. However, the demand for designing interactive user interfaces that are intuitive, reusable, and easy to maintain is constantly growing for programmers and users alike.
As a response to the growing need for creating rapidly responsive user interfaces, React is quickly becoming a popular solution. Many top web-based companies including Netflix, Instagram. Facebook, and Airbnb, among others, are using the framework to quickly and efficiently create apps using a syntax similar to XML called JSX.
As an alternative to Angular, the framework breaks down the front-end into smaller components. The fact changing technology and the ever-increasing need for quality user design that evolved from Apple’s innovative thinking require programmers to update their knowledge and arsenal of tools continually.
Today, developers need React training to ensure that they are up to date on the newest technological trend and can satisfy the growing demand for beautiful and intuitive interfaces.