"An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties"
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“Humane” is a loaded word to apply to an interface, and Raskin knows it. He’s not praising “nice” design; he’s indicting a whole tradition of computing that treats the user as a junior engineer who should adapt to the machine’s logic. Calling an interface humane smuggles ethics into what many teams prefer to frame as neutral craft. It implies that bad UX isn’t just inconvenient, it’s a small moral failure: a system that demands vigilance, perfect memory, and constant self-control from people who have none of those qualities all day, every day.
The line works because it rejects the macho mythology of “power users” and “RTFM” culture. “Responsive to human needs” points beyond speed or aesthetics to intent: what is the person actually trying to do, under pressure, in a messy world? “Considerate of human frailties” is even sharper. Frailty isn’t a bug to be trained away; it’s the baseline. People misclick, misunderstand, forget, get tired, panic, and improvise. A humane interface anticipates that reality with forgiveness: clear feedback, safe defaults, reversible actions, and paths that don’t punish curiosity.
Context matters: Raskin helped birth the Macintosh and spent his career arguing for human-centered design before it became corporate mantra. His subtext reads like a warning to today’s product culture, too: if your interface “works” only when users behave like machines, the interface is the problem.
The line works because it rejects the macho mythology of “power users” and “RTFM” culture. “Responsive to human needs” points beyond speed or aesthetics to intent: what is the person actually trying to do, under pressure, in a messy world? “Considerate of human frailties” is even sharper. Frailty isn’t a bug to be trained away; it’s the baseline. People misclick, misunderstand, forget, get tired, panic, and improvise. A humane interface anticipates that reality with forgiveness: clear feedback, safe defaults, reversible actions, and paths that don’t punish curiosity.
Context matters: Raskin helped birth the Macintosh and spent his career arguing for human-centered design before it became corporate mantra. His subtext reads like a warning to today’s product culture, too: if your interface “works” only when users behave like machines, the interface is the problem.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
|---|---|
| Source | Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface, MIT Press, 2000. |
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