Jef Raskin

Jef Raskin (March 9, 1943–February 26, 2005) was the human-computer interface expert who began the Macintosh project for Apple Computer and is the author of The Humane Interface, which in large part builds on his earlier work with the Canon Cat. Raskin received a B.S. Mathematics and B.A. in Philosophy from the State University of New York and an M.S. in Computer Science from the Pennsylvania State University. As an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), he taught classes ranging from computer science to photography.

Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as the 31st employee. He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple, and began the Macintosh project. He is credited with the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, a departure from the Xerox PARC standard of a three-button mouse. He has since stated that were he to redesign the interface today, he would have used a two button mouse.

Raskin designed the Canon Cat, released in 1987.

At the beginning of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of The Humane Environment (THE). THE is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using open source elements within his rendition of a ZUI or Zooming User Interface.

Jef Raskin died peacefully on 2005-02-26.

See also

• Information Appliance

External links

• Audio interviews with Jef Raskin and photos from various periods of his life
• Articles from Jef Raskin about the history of the Macintosh
• History the Apple PASCAL poster made by Raskin
• List of Jef Raskin articles
• Jef Raskin - Userati
• Jef Raskin, interviewed in the Guardian, late 2004.
• Jef Raskin, Apple GUI & Human Interface Pioneer Dies
• JefRaskin.com