Jef Raskin Quotes

#1. 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

#2. Once the product's task is known, design the interface first; then implement to the interface design.

Jef Raskin

#3. 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

#4. What users want is convenience and results.

Jef Raskin

#5. A well-designed and humane interface does not need to be split into beginner and expert subsystems.

Jef Raskin

#6. 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

#7. Right now, computers, which are supposed to be our servant, are oppressing us.

Jef Raskin

#8. An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties.

Jef Raskin

#9. As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.

Jef Raskin

#10. When you have to choose among methods, your locus of attention is drawn from the task and temporarily becomes the decision itself.

Jef Raskin

#11. An unlimited-length file name is a file. The content of a file is its own best name.

Jef Raskin

#12. If our field is "to advance", we must - without displacing creativity and aesthetics - make sure our terminology is clear.

Jef Raskin

#13. A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.

Jef Raskin

#14. If I had not studied music, there would be no Macintosh computers today.

Jef Raskin

#15. Human logic [emphasis added] was forced on us by the physical world and is therefore consistent with it. Mathematics derives from logic. This is why mathematics is consistent with the physical world.

Jef Raskin

#16. The system should treat all user input as sacred.

Jef Raskin

#17. 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

#18. A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.

Jef Raskin

#19. Users do not care about what is inside the box, as long as the box does what they need done.

Jef Raskin