I’ve learned that creating great designs isn’t just about making something look cool or functional—it’s about making it fit seamlessly into a larger system. When I look at the iPod and iPhone, I see two perfect examples of how design can go beyond a single product and connect with an entire ecosystem to make users’ lives easier.

The iPod wasn’t just a music player. It was a device that worked effortlessly with iTunes to let people sync their music, playlists, and preferences. It didn’t make you feel like you were figuring out complicated tech; it just worked. Then came the iPhone, which took this idea even further. It wasn’t just a phone—it became part of a system that included the App Store, Macs, iPads, and eventually even your home with things like HomeKit. Apple made sure every piece of the puzzle fit together, so the experience felt natural no matter what you were doing.

As a student, this teaches me an important lesson: our designs can’t exist in isolation. People don’t just use one device or one app; they live in an interconnected world. Whether it’s designing an app or a new tool, I need to think about how it will work with other systems and adapt to different contexts. The iPod and iPhone didn’t just change technology—they showed us that compatibility isn’t just a feature, it’s a necessity. That’s a mindset I want to take into every project I work on.