The Humane Interface

Citation

(2001), "The Humane Interface", Kybernetes, Vol. 30 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2001.06730aae.002

The Humane Interface

The Humane Interface

Jef RaskinACM304 pp.ISBN 1-201-37937-6ACM order // 706000. Contact ACM, E-store: http://www.acm.org/catalog/ (special price for ACM members)

Keywords: Publication, Cybernetics, MMI

This book has the secondary title, New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems. Its author, Jef Raskin, and the Apple organisation are not newcomers to computer interface design. They claim credit for helping to introduce what was called the computer interface revolution. There is no doubt that they brought the best available technology to establish many of the interface techniques and methods now currently used in the computer industry.

The publishers believe that:

This book again provides both his far-sightedness and his practicality. The book is also timely because our honeymoon with digital technology is over. We are tired of having to learn huge, arcane programs to do even the simplest tasks; we have had enough 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.

Researchers in cybernetics who have also made many contributions to what used to be described as the man-machine interface will need to read this text – if only to keep up to date in a rapidly changing field.