This is a valuable book for two reasons. First, it explains how human cognitive abilities and limitations determine which UI designs will be easy vs. difficult for people to learn and use. It can therefore help to educate those software designers who lack training in cognitive psychology. Second, it challenges longstanding GUI design assumptions, pointing out many ways in which conventional GUIs are actually bad for users. It can therefore point the way for evolution of current-day GUIs into something better.
　　What this book is NOT is a design-guide for creating GUIs that are Windows (or Mac, Motif, or Web) compliant. If that's what you want, you should look elsewhere.
　　My one criticism is that, in my opinion, the book loses steam in its later chapters, becoming a collection (the author calls it a 'potpourri') of Raskin's pet peeves about computers, along with his remedies. For the second edition, these chapters could be tightened up or cut. Nonetheless, the Human Interface should be required reading for every software designer and UI researcher

"I don't know what percentage of our time on any computer-based project is spent getting the equipment to work right, but if I had a gardener who spent as much of the time fixing her shovel as we spend fooling with our computers, I'd buy her a good shovel. At least you can buy a good shovel."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　—Erasmus Smums
　　Creating an interface is much like building a house: If you don't get the foundations right, no amount of decorating can fix the resulting structure. The Humane Interface reexamines the cognitive foundations of human-machine interaction to elucidate a crucial aspect of why interface designs succeed or fail. One finding is that present-day graphical user interfaces, such as those of the Windows and Macintosh operating systems, which are based on an architecture of operating system plus application programs, are inherently flawed. A different approach is required if computers are to become more pleasant and if users are to become more productive. This book describes some of the fundamental flaws in user interfaces and describes solutions for overcoming those flaws.
　　Although the techniques covered in The Humane Interface apply to a wide range of products—including web sites, application software, handheld personal data managers and other information appliances, and operating systems—this book does not present a survey of the field of human-machine interface design. Rather, this book strikes out in new directions while also reviewing those established parts of interface design that are needed in the development of the new material.
　　If we are to surmount the inherentproblems in present human-machine interfaces, it is necessary that we understand the teachings of this volume; it is not, however, sufficient. Many important aspects of interaction design are not included here because they are well covered in the literature. This book is intended to complement existing—or to be a prolegomenon to future—treatments of interface design.
　
The audience for this book includes
　　Web designers and managers who want to give their sites a special ease of use that appeals to audiences and helps customers to find the information they need and to buy what they want .
　　Product designers and product managers who need to be able to create web sites or products that will win and retain customers by offering ease of use and ready learnability and by having a first-rate feature set.
　　Corporate managers who correctly insist on making products that have low maintenance and that reduce the need for help desks.
　　Programmers who do interface design—and who doesn't these days —and who want to understand more of the factors that make their work most useful.
　　IT (information technology) managers who need to know which interface features will minimize their costs for training and which interface designs are likely to aid productivity.
　　Consumers who want to learn what to hope for in terms of pleasant interaction with computers and other equipment, and what is wrong with the way today's software is designed
Computer science and cognitive psychology students who want to understand what lies behind heuristics of interface design
Finally, this book is for human-machine interface researchers, who will find that they will never again be able to view interfaces in quite the same way they did before reading The Humane Interface.

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMEWTS
INTRODUCTION: The Importance of Fundamentals
ONE Background
1--1 Interface Definition
1--2 Keep the Simple Simple
1--3 Human--Centered Design and User--Centered Design
1--4 Tools That Do Not Facilitate Design Innovation
1--5 Interface Design in the Design Cycle
1--6 Definition of a Humane Interface
TWO Cognetics and the Locus of Attention
2--1 Ergonomics and Cognetics: What We Can and Cannot Do
2--2 Cognitive Conscious and Cognitive Unconscious
2--3 Locus of Attention
2--3--1 Formation of Habits
2--3--2 Execution of Simultaneous Tasks
2--3--3 Singularity of the Locus of Attention
2--3--4 Origins of the Locus of Attention
2--3--5 Exploitation of the Single Locus of Attention
2--3--6 Resumption of Interrupted Work
THREE Meanings Modes Monotony and Myths
3--1 Nomenclature and Notations
3--2 Modes
3--2--1 Definition of Modes
3--2--2 Modes, User--Preference Settings,and Temporary Modes
3--2--3 Modes and Quasimodes
3--3 Noun--Verb versus Verb--Noun Constructions
3--4 Visibility and Affordances
3--5 Monotony
3-6 Myth of the Beginner-Expert Dichotomy
Four Quantification
4--1 Quantitative Analyses of Interfaces
4--2 GOMS Keystroke-Level Model
4--2--1 Interface Timings
4--2--2 GOMS Calculations
4--2--3 GOMS Calculation Examples
4--2--3--1 Hal's Interface: Solution 1, Dialog Box
4--2--3--2 Hal's Interface: Solution 2, GUI
4--3 Measurement of Interface Efficiency
4--3--1 Efficiency of Hal's Interfaces
4--3--2 Other Solutions for Hal's Interface
4--4 Fitts' Law and Hick's Law
4--4--1 Fitts' Law
4--4--2 Hick's Law
FIVE Unification
5--1 Uniformity and Elementary Actions
5--2 Elementary Actions Cataloged
5--2--1 Highlighting, Indication, and Selection
5--2--2 Commands
5--2--3 Display States of Objects
5--3 File Names and Structures
5--4 String Searches and Find Mechanisms
5--4--1 Search--Pattern Delimiters
5--4--2 Units of Interaction
5--5 Cursor Design and a Strategy for Making Selections
5--6 Cursor Position and LEAP
5--7 Applications Abolished
5--8 Commands and Transformers
SIX Navigation and Other Aspects of Humane Interfaces
6--1 Intuitive and Natural Interfaces
6--2 Better Navigation: Zoom World
6--3 Icons
6--4 Techniques and Help Facilities in Humane Interfaces
6--4--1 Cut and Paste
6--4--2 Messages to the User
6--4--3 Simplified Sign--Ons
6--4--4 Time Delays and Keyboard Tricks
6--5 Letter from a User
SEVEN Interface Issues Outside the User Interface
7--1 More Humane Programming Language Environments
7--1--1 System and Development Environment
7--1--2 Importance of Documentation in
Program Creation
7--2 Modes and Cables
7--3 Ethics and Management of Interface Design
EIGHT Conclusion
APPENDlX A: The One-Button Mouse History
APPENDlX B: SwyftCard Interfece Theory of Operation
REFERENCES
INDEX