Jef Raskin

Jef Raskin studied mathematics, physics, philosophy and music at Stony Brook University, then earned a master's degree in computer science at Pennsylvania State University. He taught at the University of California, San Diego, where his students included Bill Atkinson, and was also a musician and conductor.

He joined Apple in January 1978 as manager of publications, among the first dozens of employees. In 1979 he proposed and began leading a project for a low-cost, easy-to-use computer, which he named after the McIntosh apple, changing the spelling of the name. Raskin brought in key members of the original team, but his vision of a simple text-oriented appliance differed from the graphical, mouse-driven machine that Steve Jobs wanted once he took control of the project in 1981.

Raskin left Apple in 1982 and founded Information Appliance Inc., which designed the Canon Cat released in 1987. He wrote The Humane Interface in 2000, a book on user interface design, and in 2005 renamed his latest interface project Archy. He died on February 26, 2005, aged 61, and his son Aza Raskin continued some of his work.

Although Jobs took the Macintosh in a different direction, Raskin's early ideas, including the aim of a computer for ordinary people with a consistent, simple interface, shaped the project's goals. His criticisms of modality and insistence on measuring usability influenced later generations of interface designers and writers.