Apple’s impressive health features have been expanding over the years and reach beyond devices like Apple Watch. Now in a new interview, Apple’s VP of health, Dr. Sumbul Desai revealed how the company approaches designing, validating, and testing health features, and more.
Sitting down for an interview during Heath Month with Rene Ritchie, Dr. Desai shared that having the leadership team at Apple fully behind innovation in health is empowering and important. And the company’s dedication to a cross-functional nature between multiple groups at Apple is what brings the “magic” to its health features and products.
That process includes Apple’s engineers and designers working closely with subject-matter experts and clinicians. Dr. Desai said Apple asks three questions when designing health features:
- How are they grounded in science?
- How are they tecnically feasible?
- How do we deliver them in a thoughtful and meaningful design that will be impactful to a user?
Desai noted the multi-team collaborative approach is what she loves the most as it brings “healthy debate” and “healthy conversation” which pushes their thinking to offer the best features to customers.
Other interesting parts of the interview include Dr. Desai talking about how features like iOS Focus mode and Screen Time aren’t always thought of as health features but they really are. And the interview also touches on how privacy is at the center of all of Apple’s health features.
Check out the full interview below:
