Two of Apple's early designers have written a piece for Co.Design criticizing the direction Apple has taken when it comes to design, claiming that the company has prioritized visual simplicity over ease of use.

The piece was written by Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, who wrote Apple's first human interfaces guidelines, and Don Norman, who worked as Apple's user experience architect between 1993 and 1996.

"Now, although the products are indeed even more beautiful than before, that beauty has come at a great price," said the duo in the article. "Gone are the fundamental principles of good design: discoverability, feedback, recovery, and so on."

According to the two ex-designers, Apple has traded in the design principles that it once had in favor of a far too minimalistic approach. An example of this is a font that is used by Apple, called San Francisco, which the two designers suggest is too small.

They also criticized Apple for not having things like a universal back button, a button that is present on Android devices. Not only that, but according to the designers, Apple has too many "hidden" gesture-based menus and pushes simplicity over usability when it comes to its human interface guidelines for developers.

Of course, while the criticism of Apple is most interesting because of the fact that the two designers used to work for the company, they also criticized Google Maps and Android for having similar flaws.

It should also be noted that the two designers did say that Apple had succeeded at making its products very visually appealing, however, they said that the appeal has dampened some complaints.

"The product is beautiful! And fun. As a result, when people have difficulties, they blame themselves. Good for Apple. Bad for the customer."

Source: Co.Design