Rating: 
Summary: Well reasoned and revolutionary in its implications
Review: I can recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone involved with information technology. Raskin offers a considered and analytical approach to what really makes a good interface. In doing so he exposes many of the inadequacies of current systems like Windows and Macintosh. He shows how it is possible to measure the efficiency of interfaces, often with surprising results. This is particularly refreshing at a time when we are often told that interface design is something „creative" or „intuitive". Another strength is his determination to get back to basics. As he points out there are only a limited number of elementary actions that we perform when interacting with a computer. To make the system easy to use it is therefore important to make the performance of these elementary actions completely consistent across the user's whole interaction with the system. His method leads to some revolutionary conclusions. I find the argument for a content orientated approach to interface design highly persuasive. When writing this review, for example, I want to be able to concentrate as entirely as possible on what I am writing and not on the often baffling myriad of features that my word processor offers me. Raskin makes it clear that user interface problems have not been solved by the GUI. As a long term iconoclast (or should that be iconophobe?) I find his critique of icons very welcome. I have always found icons difficult to understand and in business applications where you have to represent abstract concepts the task becomes impossible; what would be a suitable icon for „Create Accrual"? Almost always a word is easier to understand than an icon. I am trying to apply Raskin's ideas to the programs I write (though Windows tries hard to stop me) and I sincerely hope that the designers at Microsoft, Oracle and in the Open Source Foundation are paying very close attention to Raskin's ideas. Then we can look forward to information systems that are really a pleasure to use.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst reads ive had in years
Review: In line with the tremendously pompous "A New Kind of Science," Jef Raskin goes off on just about every little aspect of using computers. He explains how he has the magic key. However, just like in ANKOS, you finish the book wondering if you know anything more at all. In his explanations of whats wrong and whats right, he contradicts himself countless time. He goes on to complain that everything should have only one way of doing it, then complains when Microsoft only has one way of accomplishing something. He explains that every key or button should perform one task, then is upset when it doesnt perform three or four. He discusses the realm of design as if there was no difference between an expert user and a novice, claiming that the difference is negligible, and that if there was only one way to do things, ppl would get used to it and everything would be great. Apparently, Jef Raskin has never used vi. What I learned from this book is that if Jef Raskin has his way about interface design, im going to have to stop upgrading my machines. 1 stars is the most it deserves. Its not worth your money and its certainly not worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Best interface design book I have ever read
Review: Jef Raskin's book, The Humane Interface, is the single best human interface design book that I have read. While I am a healthcare preofessional and not a computer geek, the principles of design that Raskin discusses could well be applied to the design of the systems that I use to document patient care and to manage clinical data. I recommend this book to all people who design systems that real people must deal with and use. Part of the frustration of caring for people in healthcare should not be the poor data management systems that require users to learn a multitue of systems and specialized commands; the systems should support the user doing their job. I wish that all designers would read this book and take its message to heart.
Rating:
Summary: A book based on mathmatics and phsycology
Review: Finally a book by an author who has sat down and worked out his ideas by mathmatics and lab testing! He goes into examples of problems and provides elegant solutions to fixing them. Also teaches basics of how to test you design compared to others and can largly eleminate "preference" from something plauged by crank scientists theories and ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Fundamentals and Futurist speculation
Review: Raskins' "The Humane Interface" is cut from the same cloth as Alan Cooper's "About Face", Jeff Johnson's "GUI Bloopers", and Bruce Tognazzini's "Tog on Interface". I prefer Johnson's books to the others due to its thoroughness, even-handedness and case-study orientation. As in Cooper's and Tognazzini's books, many of Raskin's recommendations are tried and true, whereas others are much more speculative. Raskin thoroughly grounds his book in cognitive theory, which for a cognitive scientist like me, is highly refreshing. Others might not appreciate the theory as much, but this is clearly the meat of the science of UI design. But this is not a book on cognitive psychology, so it quickly moves on to discuss "cognetics", which he describes as the ergonomics of the mind. Like most UI designers, Raskin has semantic qualms with the term "intuitive", but introduces "affordances" as a stand-in. An affordance is simply something that's familiar from your earlier experiences. Combined with "visibility", they form the backbone of easy-to-use-out-of-the-box UI design. Raskin quite rightly denies the zero-sum nature of design for novice versus design for experts, claiming you can build well for both by following the domain. There's an excellent discussion of Fitt's Law, which predicts how long it will take to land a mouse on a screen object based on size and distance. I also appreciated the clear explanation of the GOMS keystroke model and his subsequent application of information theory to the design of a farenheit-celsius converter. Getting more concrete, Raskin delivers the obligatory rant against modes. In a novel twist, he then introduces a nifty notation of the elementary actions of today's GUI's (mouse down, key clicks, selection, mouse movement, etc.), which brings him much closer to the engineering side of interface design than any of the competing books. There is an excellent description of in-text search, using emacs (the text editor of choice for the world's programmers) as an example. The section on commands and transformers, the basis of the Unix operating system and software design within it, indicate that emacs wasn't the only thing Raskin picked up before he designed the Mac UI. I was completely unconvinced by Raskin's radical suggestions for redesigning (really discarding) the notion of file. I can't imagine making his concept of LEAP work in practice. I'm not even sure I understood the description. I was equally unimpressed by his "Zoomworld" suggestions for navigation. "The Humane Interface" doesn't break much new ground, but its solid foundations and smattering of sharp insights make it a worthwhile edition to any UI designer's bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly excellent, gets lost in places
Review: Jef Raskin presents a good overview of human machine interaction issues in the first few chapters. His superb coverage of interface modes, habit-formation, locus of attention and various worked quantitative analysis methods to measure interaction makes this book well worth its while alone... These are topics which are rarely covered this well. I feel that the author loses focus slightly when he starts to talk about how he would implement a new computer interface. Without good examples, screenshots or user-reports from an implementation of these ideas we are largely left with the author's lengthy textual explananations which are sometimes hard to follow. It seems like the author is trying to make up for having the Macintosh project taken away from him. Constantly referring back to the dated "Canon Cat" which was a project he worked on, gets a bit tiresome; it would have been nice to see more modern applications of the authors ideas, many of which are extremely interesting (the ideas presented explain why nearly everyone finds Windows 2000's "adaptive" menus annoying). Despite this, the book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in human machine / human computer interfaces.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - but dont take his ideas as gospel!
Review: This is possibly the most rewarding UI book I have read. I say that because it takes a constructive approach - actually suggesting novel solutions to problems rather than just stating that "the mouse is dead", "menus are passe" etc. The latter style frustrates, as its obvious the author doesnt have any better ideas (or if they do, they're not willing to share them!). The other good thing about Raskin's book is that it encourages the reader to think about their own solutions to common UI problems. This second point is where my caveat comes in. Raskin's suggestions prompted my own creativity because his are so extreme! Resist the temptation to take Raskin's suggestions as gospel. I think they intended more to stimulate debate over UI elements we take for granted. Those of us who have used computers since the early 80s (or earlier) might be tempted by Raskin's rather zealous "back-to-the-good-ole-days" ideas, such as dedicated function keys on the keyboard (he's very big on these) - but I don't see the 21st century PC novice warming to such ideas. Of course, if you disagree with Raskin's ideas, it means you're thinking about UI design, so you're getting your money's worth!
Rating:
Summary: A great start... but it falters toward the finish
Review: When I told a friend I had bought this book, he said he liked it through chapter four--but that it went rapidly downhill from there. He was right. In those first four chapters, Raskin--the "inventor" of the Macintosh--offers what I think is a terrific introduction to the basics of interface design, cognetics and the quantification of interfaces. I lapped it up, despite Raskin's occasionally convoluted writing style. In fact, it gave me some ideas for a project I had worked on last year. I suspect I'll turn to the first four chapters for reference in the future. But Raskin goes afield, I think, in the latter half of the book. He proposes an entirely new interface for PCs--one that dispenses with file names, directory structures and applications. I'm sure we all agree that the current Windows interface is far from ideal or humane, confusing untold millions and making work more difficult than necessary. But while Raskin's heart and intellect are in the right places, I think his proposed cure is nearly as bad as the disease. I am intrigued, however, by his ZIP or "zooming" navigation approach. So--is this book worth your time (and money)? You'll have to make your own call. If you already have a background in interface design theory, The Humane Interface offers you a view of Raskin's dream for a new interface. On the other hand, if you know little about interface design, you might really enjoy the introduction Raskin offers and appreciate the stimulus his dream interface provides.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Book to Inspire Thought, new Designs
Review: I think most people approach this book with the attitude of a technical manual of design, which is not what this book was intended for. If you're looking for "how to design a great webpage" or the aesthetics of computing, this isn't the right book. This book should be considered by engineers and programmers who want focal points that will make their hardware or software more acceptable and effective to end-users. This is an extremely important book because, at this time in the computer industry, we use a lot of crufty, over-extended applications with poor interface and design. Even the once-rudimentary OS has become overly complex and burdened. The individual, confused and distracted at the interface is clearly not in control. Raskin wants to place the user firmly back in control by introducing a variety of different considerations most engineers do not research thoroughly enough when calculating usage needs. He approaches the issue of interface design from a philosophical, psychological, and technological perspective. The theoretical concepts of chunking, gesture, and habituation are mixed in with the pragmatic ability to Universally Undo actions. Simple things ruin an interface's ability to care for and serve a user, from not understanding the process of how humans switch contexts to incorrectly estimating how humans use their unconscious and conscious minds. How is quality assurance testing possible, he asks, when you have so many unnecessary "Preferences" and customizations able to be set in ways that are unique to the individual users? The answer, of course, is that it is foolish to attempt testing what doesn't exist yet. The resulting product is fascinating, even if you don't agree entirely with some of Raskin's conclusions. My impression is that he is throwing ideas out there to inspire others to build from them and, most importantly, implement them in their own projects.
Rating:
Summary: Great Concepts- A startling read - well worth the time!
Review: Amazing. When I first started reading this the concepts he laid out seemed so very wrong... but he gradually changed my mind. If anything has infulenced my design technique in recent months, as well as changing my thoughts for the future of computing, Raskin's book has. Must be read by anyone thinking about interfaces. It read's like a case study of dream software- but it already exists. Facinating.
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