I had set up a Technorati blog search for “raskin”, to keep me alerted to posts on the exploits of Jef Raskin, user interface guru and my personal idol. It was through this search that I learned suddenly on Sunday that he had died of cancer. This initial post was followed by a flood of later ones, as interface pundits learned of their peer’s untimely demise.

The interesting part, though, is that only a fraction of these posts appear to be in English. So far I’ve seen German, some Norse language I don’t know, Japanese, and Chinese, among others. Guess Raskin’s work really was widely known.

The Raskin Center Humane Interface (an open-source project to bring a Canon Cat-like interface to the masses) takes on new importance now - it may be the last chance this century for the world to experience a truly usable interface. Hopefully it will take off, and Raskin, like so many other geniuses, will come to be truly appreciated after his death.