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The Sketchbook of Susan Kare

Posted by timothy on from the ideas-in-action dept.

theodp writes "The Mac wasn't the first computer to present the user with a virtual desktop of files and folders instead of a command line and a blinking cursor, but it was the sketchbook of Susan Kare that gave computing a human face to the masses. After graduating from NYU with a Ph.D. in fine arts, Kare was working on a commission from an Arkansas museum to sculpt a razorback hog out of steel when she got a call from high-school friend Andy Hertzfeld offering her a job to work on the Mac. The rest, as they say, is UI history. Armed with a $2.50 sketchbook, Kare crafted the casual prototypes of a new, radically user-friendly face of computing. BTW, just in time for holiday gift-giving, Kare has self-published her first book, Susan Kare Icons. So, could computing could use a few more artists, and a few less MBAs?"

10 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. A few less MBAs.... by mevets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is there any field that couldn't use less MBAs? It is a sort of community service to get the poor critters off the street, but they sure make a mess of things. Maybe we can find them a nice island somewhere.

    1. Re:A few less MBAs.... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's less about having less MBA, and simply having less people telling actual creators and innovators what to do, and what not to do.

      Our society is going nowhere if our developments and actions are being decided by people who don't understand what the things they're making decisions about.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    2. Re:A few less MBAs.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Half a decade before the Macintosh, a Harvard MBA named Dan Bricklin invented the first spreadsheet application, VisiCalc. It's not about having people with or without degrees, it's about having creative and innovative people, whatever their background.

    3. Re:A few less MBAs.... by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sergy Brin, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg... Not an MBA amongst them. Where are these MBAs that know how to run companies?

    4. Re:A few less MBAs.... by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm no fan of Bill Gates, but he did write the original Microsoft BASIC back in the mid 1970s, and fit it in 4K, the first person do do such a thing. Now, lots of people could do it, but then, with the tools and knowledge of the day it was quite a feat. He's certainly a software engineer, and a notable one at that.

      I like to make fun of web app developers too. But in reality it is real software engineering, often with a greater variety of skills needed than classic programming. Not for the simplest web sites, but certainly for something like a social app.

      I agree they are scumbags, but they are successful company founding software engineer scumbags.

  2. So not everybody who did well dropped out... by fantomas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So not everybody who did well dropped out: a PhD in art history as well as a maker (her PhD thesis title "A study of the use of caricature in selected sculptures of Honore Daumier and Claes Oldenburg").

    Nice to know it's possible to balance the two, it will make some of my PhD student friends very happy indeed :-)

  3. Re:Do you realize who this is? by brantondaveperson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know your mouse pointer? You know, the one that changes to indicate what actions are available depending on what you're pointing at? They're icons too. Icons also take up significantly less space in a toolbar than text, and are much faster for the human eye to recognise. The world of icons is not restricted to what litters your desktop.

    Also real work does not always == coding. Icons indicating which tool you have selected in photoshop (for instance) are most definitely used for 'real work'.

  4. Re:Icons are a waste of time by tverbeek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You simply don't know what the hell you're talking about. The normal human brain is very good a visual recognition of objects, and can find a familiar, distinctive icon for a program such as iTunes more quickly than it can find the word "iTunes". We recognize a red, hexagonal sign more quickly than we would recognize a white rectangle with black letters that read "stop". I'm sorry if the peculiarities of your brain development don't handle this properly, but don't begrudge the rest of us a UI that takes advantage of this.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  5. Re:wrong by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Again, neither Xerox nor anyone else had pull-down menus nor anything like it. Xerox used buttons for commands. Either physical buttons on the custom keyboard, or screen buttons rather like a text button version of a modern day toolbar. Nothing like pull-down menus.

    So, what you call "pull down menus" was a minor graphical variation on existing practice at the time.

    There's nothing minor about it. The two dimensional menus within a menu concept was novel, new and is a central ingredient of most GUI OSs to this day.

    Whether or not it's attached to the screen or the app window *IS* a minor variation, yet that's something you bring up in the hope of changing this from a discussion of fact, to one of preference.

  6. Re:wrong by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Many systems had a global hierarchical menu, some put them at the top, some used vertically stacked buttons, some used a menu button. Apple's choice was a minor variation of these systems,

    I've asked for a specific example. The only one you've given is Xerox, and you're wrong on that. Give it up.

    Yeah, you're just the typical Apple fanboy trying to rewrite history.

    On the contrary. I've given the history. I've linked to Wikipedia to prove it. You're the one who's denying history, without a scrap of anything to back you up. And the reason you're doing it is you hate Apple. Grow up.