Revive Jef Raskin's three laws for humane software design

A call for humane software work

The article calls for reviving Jef Raskin's three laws of software and computer interface design. Its proposal is to guide interface work with established rules and connect those principles to humane work that considers a developer's duty of care. It presents this as a response to a software industry that has not consistently applied lessons it already knows.

Raskin's response to Asimov

Raskin formulated the three laws 58 years after Isaac Asimov set out three laws of robotics in 1942. The pairing places formal principles for robotics alongside a separate framework for human-computer interface design. The article's claim is that Raskin's laws have not been bettered since they were introduced.

Linux did not end the gap

The text notes that rules, and even laws, covering the design of computer user interfaces are not new. Even after 35 years of Linux, which brought Unix to the masses, the FOSS world has not fully grasped these lessons. The discussion uses Linux as evidence that the wide reach of a major operating system has not automatically produced full acceptance of established interface design principles.

Forgotten knowledge in proprietary software

The article also says the proprietary software world is forgetting what it once knew. Against that backdrop, reviving Raskin's framework is presented as a way to retain established design principles and connect them with professional responsibility. The proposed focus is humane software work and a developer's duty of care, with interface laws serving as a guide rather than remaining a forgotten part of computing history.

Sources: Walled-Original