Jef Raskin famous quotes

04-27-2025

As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.
-- Jef Raskin

#Educational #Concerned #Interfaces
I hate mice. The mouse involves you in arm motions that slow you down. I didn't want it on the Macintosh, but Jobs insisted. In those days, what he said went, good idea or not.
-- Jef Raskin

#Jobs #Hate #Ideas
An unlimited-length file name is a file. The content of a file is its own best name.
-- Jef Raskin

#Names #Length #Unlimited
When you have to choose among methods, your locus of attention is drawn from the task and temporarily becomes the decision itself.
-- Jef Raskin

#Decision #Tasks #Attention
If I am correct, the use of a product based on modelessness and monoty would soon become so habitual as to be nearly addictive, leading to a user population devoted to and loyal to the product.
-- Jef Raskin

#Population #Use #Loyal
If I had not studied music, there would be no Macintosh computers today.
-- Jef Raskin

#Would Be #Today #Computer
If our field is "to advance", we must - without displacing creativity and aesthetics - make sure our terminology is clear.
-- Jef Raskin

#Creativity #Design #Fields
What I proposed was a computer that would be easy to use, mix text and graphics, and sell for about $1,000. Steve Jobs said that it was a crazy idea, that it would never sell, and we didn't want anything like it. He tried to shoot the project down.
-- Jef Raskin

#Jobs #Crazy #Ideas
I am only a footnote, but proud of the footnote I have become. My subsequent work on eliciting principles and developing the theory of interface design, so that many people will be able to do what I did is probably also footnote-worthy. In looking back at this turn-of-the-century period, the rise of a worldwide network will be seen as the most significant part of the computer revolution.
-- Jef Raskin

#People #Design #Principles
Users do not care about what is inside the box, as long as the box does what they need done.
-- Jef Raskin

#Long #Doe #Needs
Once the product's task is known, design the interface first; then implement to the interface design.
-- Jef Raskin

#Design #Tasks #Firsts
The system should treat all user input as sacred.
-- Jef Raskin

#Input #Sacred #Should
A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.
-- Jef Raskin

#Waste #Computer
A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.
-- Jef Raskin

#Computer #Harm #Inaction
What users want is convenience and results.
-- Jef Raskin

#Design #Want #Results
A well-designed and humane interface does not need to be split into beginner and expert subsystems.
-- Jef Raskin

#Design #Experts #Doe
Right now, computers, which are supposed to be our servant, are oppressing us.
-- Jef Raskin

#Computer #Servant
An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties.
-- Jef Raskin

#Needs #Frailty #Considerate
Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.
-- Jef Raskin

#Time #Thinking #Technology

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