Original Macintosh Designer Andy Hertzfeld Helped Design New Google+ Social Network

By most accounts, Google’s new social network Google+ at least looks pretty good.

As it turns out, there’s a reason for that: it was designed by the guy who designed the original Macintosh.

In a great, in-depth report on the making of Google+, In The Plex’s Steven Levy reports for Wired:

With colorful animations, drag-and-drop magic, and whimsical interface touches, Circles looks more like a classic Apple program than the typically bland Google app. That’s no surprise since the key interface designer was legendary software artist Andy Hertzfeld.

Andy Hertzfeld, of course, was one of the key designers behind the original Macintosh software. He’s been working at Google since 2005, and with Google+, Hertzeld was apparently given free reign to “flex his creative muscles.”

Even more interestingly? According to Levy, Google CEO Larry Page is historically opposed to lavish, attractive designs, but he made an exception for Google+… and exception that Hertzfeld chalks up entirely to Apple’s resurgence.

Look closely at Google+! There’s more than a little Apple DNA there.

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