Jef Raskin (1943 – 2005)
Expert in human-computer interaction who began the Macintosh project for Apple Computer.
As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.
A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.
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.
Icons, windows, mice, big operating systems, huge programs, integrated packages.... I would like to remind the world that just because two things are on the same menu doesn't mean they taste good together.
It's absolutely ugly, but unfortunately quite true of the world today; the more money you make, the more people tend to listen to you. If you're not quoted in Fortune or Forbes or the Wall Street Journal, then nobody listens. If you say something that makes a lot of money, whether what you said is true or not, people listen.
An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties.
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.
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.
His role on the Macintosh was the initiator of the project, so it wouldn't be here if it weren't for him.