Digital Cameras 

Apple Computer developed the first consumer digital camera, the QuickTake. It then spun out a company called Flashpoint Technology to continue its digital camera work. Flashpoint developed an operating system designed specifically for digital cameras which supported both basic and advanced camera functionality along with a scripting capability.

Zanzara was brought in at the very beginning of digital camera research at Apple and continued on to produce several digital camera products with Apple and Flashpoint.

Digital cameras were an emerging technology at this point, so Apple needed to understand what people wanted to do with a camera that had computer power behind it.

They also needed to understand what features were most important to their customers and develop an interface that would work with naive to advanced users.

Zanzara conducted many design research activities with paper prototypes and, eventually, hardware prototypes to understand how customers wanted to use this new technology.

Zanzara worked closely with industrial designers and engineers over four years to design and develop a camera operating system that could scale in features and look depending on the camera manufacturer.

The 'Digita' OS is used in digital cameras from Kodak,nHewlett-Packard, Konica, Minolta and Sharp.

Zanzara employed a user-centered design process to uncover customer needs for the technology, test and iterate design ideas and, ultimately, to deliver a state-of-the-art interface.

Through this process, Apple and Flashpoint were able to quickly and confidently bring products to market that met customer expectation and acceptance.

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