John Geleynse Retires From Apple

John Geleynse:

Being a part of Apple for 25 years has been the privilege and experience of a lifetime.

[…]

We released the platforms and tools that helped bring incredible products to life. We inspired developers to do some of the best work of their careers. We rewrote the original Apple Human Interface Guidelines for Mac OS X Aqua, and then authored multiple editions of the HIG for every platform that followed. We met developers in their hometowns for Tech Talks. We met one-on-one with teams working on the next big app or game. We grew the Apple Design Awards from a small ceremony on the Infinite Loop lawn to a major event on the WWDC Keynote stage. We saw firsthand the impact the ADAs made on the winners, and the inspiration they brought to others in the community.

Via John Gruber (Mastodon):

Turns out, in all the years I’ve been writing here, I’ve only mentioned Geleynse by name twice, and both times I was quoting what someone else had written. And those two posts were from 2007 and 2008 — a while ago, to say the least. That’s a shame, dare I say negligent on my part. In third-party developer circles, everyone knows John Geleynse. Most prominently, his role as co-host (with Shaan Pruden) and I think effectively co-chief of the Apple Design Awards. But the ADAs are a once-per-year award show. Year-round, year after year, platform after platform, Geleynse has been shaping, guiding, and defining what it means to be a third-party developer for Apple platforms. The point of winning an ADA isn’t to win an ADA; it’s to reward making a great app that moves the state of the art forward. That’s what Geleynse spent his career trying to do. He’s just incredibly well-liked and well-respected.

My formative experience with Geleynse was near the beginning of his career at Apple. This was during the transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, and he was an active participant on Apple’s human interface mailing list. (In those days, this sort of interaction was not uncommon for Apple evangelists and engineers, and there were even open feedback sessions at WWDC.) There were lots of discussions about Aqua vs. the classic Mac interface, about how Apple’s apps didn’t follow its own guidelines, and about how Apple was changing the way application-document binding and file system metadata worked.

I give Geleynse credit for politely interacting with developers in a somewhat contentious environment. He often gave helpful answers to specific questions. With the broader issues, though, I found him sometimes dismissive of thoughtful criticism, with explanations that seemed thin and unconvincing. It must have been frustrating for him, too, defending actions and policies that were not always his own. I did appreciate him trying, even when the answer wasn’t always satisfying. What developers really wanted was to understand why Apple was making the design decisions that it was making so that they could understand how to apply this thinking to their own apps. Geleynse seemed to agree with this goal, and I think he later had some success with it in his WWDC presentations, yet I was disappointed at the time when the reasons could not be clearly articulated. In the decades since, the Human Interface Guidelines have mosly evolved in the opposite direction.

I came away with the impression that, contrary to the way the company—especially now—presents itself, Apple was dictating decisions that were not actually very well considered. (In retrospect, how could they have had time for that given the scale and speed of the transition?) I think this is borne out in that, over time, Apple evolved Aqua mostly in the directions that its original critics had wanted.

As to documents and metadata, very little has changed. We have UTIs now, not just file extensions, but Apple hasn’t really done anything to solve the issues that developers and classic Mac OS users were concerned about back then. One could argue that Apple was right in that most users don’t seem to be upset about the current system. I still think there’s more that could be done here, but it seems less an less likely that Apple will ever revisit it.

I write this not to pick Geleynse or to relitigate old arguments, but rather to recall a very different era in the early years of Mac OS X. The relationship between Apple and developers was unrecognizable. It was a frantic period, with many big decisions being made all at once, and sometimes it wasn’t clear whether the reasons were technical or marketing or due to the balance of power between different factions within Apple. There was the sense that now was the last chance to have your say because the choices made would set the direction for a long time.

It was not long before Apple shut down the HI mailing list. Geleynse obviously went on to do many more things at Apple. I’ve heard reports over the years from developers who had one-on-one interactions where he took a quick look at their app and provided valuable feedback, instantly and seemingly effortlessly solving design issues that had plagued them for months. He’s regarded as insightful and inspiring, and I thank him for his many contributions Apple’s platforms.

Sebastiaan de With:

John Geleynse has been an immense support and inspiration for all of my career. One of the best - A tremendous guy, and I wish him all the best with what’s next.

Dustin Mierau:

Have had quite a few meetings with John over the years. Always such a joy. Got me excited over various projects. Definitely an Apple legend.

Simon Pride:

I met him at some “Macs for Higher Ed” one day thing in NYC where he was charming and helpful. Same occasion I got to spend five minutes with Sal Soghoian. Both had so much time for questions.

Previously:

• Kevan Parekh Replaces Luca Maestri
• Old Apple Human Interface Guidelines
• The Source of Technote #2034
• Apple Shutting Down Developer Mailing Lists
• Leopard HIG
• See the cat? See the stripes?

Apple Design History iOS Mac Metadata Uniform Type Identifier WWDC

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