Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Genuine
Yes. In Rob Walker, “The Guts of a New Machine”, The New York Times Magazine, 30 November 2003 (“Consumed” column).
Checked against Rob Walker, “The Guts of a New Machine”, The New York Times Magazine, 30 November 2003 (“Consumed” column), in a full-text transcription.
- Where
- Paragraph beginning “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like”
- Source
- Rob Walker, “The Guts of a New Machine”, The New York Times Magazine, 30 November 2003 (“Consumed” column)
- Checked
- In a full-text transcription
Researched by AI. Entry updated 27 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
Two years after the iPod’s launch, a magazine column on what makes the product an icon quotes Apple’s CEO on design. He rejects the idea of design as a veneer applied by designers to a finished box, and says design includes how the thing works. The column then peels the iPod layer by layer, from its aura to its insides.
What it means
Design is the whole behaviour of a product, not its styling.
Also shared as
- ShortenedDesign is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. The usual form on quote sites; Jobs’s words are “It’s not just what it looks like and feels like.” Where it was seen
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- A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. (not found) Mahatma Gandhi
Sources
Cite it
Steve Jobs, Rob Walker, “The Guts of a New Machine”, The New York Times Magazine, 30 November 2003 (“Consumed” column). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/design-is-how-it-works/ (27 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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