The night Steve Jobs died many news stories included a clip from his introduction of the iPod Nano in 2005. There was Jobs in his customary jeans and black shirt, only this time he used his famous outfit ingeniously to add impact to Apple's latest user experience design.

Watch the video here, starting at 1:30:



"Ever wonder what this pocket is for? I've always wondered that," he says, pointing to that absurdly small pocket on top of a pocket in his jeans. The line elicited laughs from Jobs' rapt audience in part because it rang so true: what is the point of that tiny pocket, anyway?

The thing is, many of us will cope with an absurdly small pocket on top of a pocket into which nothing of use could possibly be stored (except an iPod Nano) without ever stopping to wonder about the thinking that went into that pocket. The kind of user experience design that turned Apple into one of the most transformative companies in the world is hard. Very hard.

And therein lies Jobs' unsurpassed talent. He was the ultimate user experience designer. He was better at it arguably than anyone ever has been. He was so good that no one, no company, and no product, has ever emerged as a clear runner-up. There is Apple, and there is everyone else.

There is a legion of marketers, product developers, and yes, user experience designers out there trying to emulate Jobs' talent right now. Among the many great legacies he has left, that is certainly one of them: he's shown us all where the goal posts are - and just how far away.