The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems

Raskin, Jef

ISBN 10: 0201379376 / ISBN 13: 9780201379372

Published by Addison-Wesley Professional, 2000

About this Item

New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed.

Seller Inventory # 51Q67_79_0201379376

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201379376
• ISBN 13: 9780201379372
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This unique guide to interactive system design reflects the experience and vision of Jef Raskin, the creator of the Apple Macintosh project. Other books may show how to use today's widgets and interface ideas effectively. Raskin, however, demonstrates that many current interface paradigms are dead ends, and that to make computers significantly easier to use requires new approaches. He explains how to effect desperately needed changes, offering a wealth of innovative and specific interface ideas for software designers, developers, and product managers. The Apple Macintosh helped to introduce a previous revolution in computer interface design, drawing on the best available technology to establish many of the interface techniques and methods now universal in the computer industry. With this book, Raskin proves again both his farsightedness and his practicality. He also demonstrates how design ideas must be built on a scientific basis, presenting just enough cognitive psychology to link the interface of the future to the experimental evidence and to show why that interface will work. Raskin observes that our honeymoon with digital technology is over: We are tired of having to learn huge, arcane programs to do even the simplest of tasks; we have had our fill of crashing computers; and we are fatigued by the continual pressure to upgrade. The Humane Interface delivers a way for computers, information appliances, and other technology-driven products to continue to advance in power and expand their range of applicability, while becoming free of the hassles and obscurities that plague present products.

About the Author

Jef Raskin (www.jefraskin.com) is a user interface and system design consultant based in Pacifica, California. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Motorola, NCR, Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, McKesson, and AT&T all number among his clients along with dozens of less-well-known firms. His articles have been published in over forty periodicals including Wired, Quantum, IEEE Computer, and the Communications of the ACM. He is best known for having created the Macintosh at Apple and the Cat work processor for Canon.

0201379376AB04062001