The brand new Digital camera Management button
Whereas some might pooh-pooh the iPhone 16 lineup as a boring addition to Apple’s smartphone catalog, many individuals are excited for one single function: the Digital camera Management button. This is what Apple designers must say about it.
Human interface designer Johnnie Manzari and senior director of product design Wealthy Dinh sat down with Design Tangents to debate what it took to make the iPhone 16’s new digital camera a actuality. The interview befell in Apple’s personal podcast studio in Cupertino following September’s “It’s Glowtime” occasion.
A lot of the interview facilities on discussing Apple’s design philosophy and the way designers determine what makes the lower and what does not.
“I think sometimes people think we have a recipe that we’re trying to adhere to when we make these devices, when we think of these devices, and we really don’t,” Dinh says. “We really set off focusing on the customer experience, not trying to make new hardware, not trying to make new software, but really how do we move that customer experience forward and using your iPhone.”
And that philosophy is mirrored within the new iPhone 16 Digital camera Management button. Dinh factors out that the button was designed to be considerably inconspicuous, sitting flush towards the system.
“…So, for day-to-day use we’re hoping that the phone feels very much like your phone today in terms of how you grip it and handle it, but we’ve added a little chamfer in there to give that really lovely half press and full press experience with the button flush,” he says.
And by designing a button that might detect each full- and half-presses, the designers realized that they may embrace the playfulness of a devoted digital camera button.
“The idea that by lightly pressing on the button, you could signal to the phone that you were intending to take a capture,” Manzari notes. “That led to all sorts of interesting new experiences that we started to design.”
Intentionality is one other factor Apple prizes. The second you press the digital camera button, the interface clears, permitting for higher composition of designs. This intentional removing of distractions is one thing the design staff was most enthusiastic about.
“I’m probably more of the prosumer level photographer and being able to have Zoom control on your fingertips and have the screen really free of any obstruction to what you’re composing and what you’re seeing,” Dinh notes. “You’re making these videos of family, friends, kids, whatever, and it feels cinematic.”
And, to offer credit score the place credit score is due, the pair notes that the digital camera button would not exist with out in depth collaboration throughout groups.
“… It’s work from across the whole company, the sensor team, passing that information down into the architecture stack. And then on the design side, just trying to understand how would a professional do this? How would they do the ramps? And pulling it all together,” Manzari says.
“And again… hopefully, people don’t have to think about any of this. They’re just getting the video that they want of their friends and family, but it’s really built off this really deep collaboration across the entire company.”