Aza Raskin
Encyclopedia
Aza Raskin is an American interface
designer. He is the son of noted human-computer interface expert Jef Raskin
.
s at age 10 at the local San Francisco chapter of SIGCHI
. By 20, he was speaking internationally. He holds bachelor degrees in mathematics
and physics
from the University of Chicago
. He attended Caltech briefly as a Ph.D. student in Physics, continuing the dark matter
research he had participated in at both the University of Chicago and University of Tokyo
. The University of Chicago was the only school Raskin ever completed, having left middle school
, high school
, and graduate school
.
In 2004, Aza Raskin worked with Jef Raskin at the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces on Archy
, a new user interface paradigm. The next year, he founded Humanized Inc. to continue work on the Archy paradigm. At Humanized, he created the language-based service-oriented Enso software.
In 2008, Raskin and the other Humanized employees were part of a hire-out by the Mozilla Corporation
. In 2010, Raskin was appointed Creative Lead for Firefox, having previously been head of user experience at Mozilla Labs. He has worked on several labs projects including Ubiquity
, Firefox for mobile, and wrote the original specification for the Geolocation API.
Raskin is a successful entrepreneur having founded two other companies, including Songza
, a music
meta-search tool, and Bloxes, which sells furniture made out of cardboard. Songza was acquired in late 2008 by Amazon
-backed Amie Street
. He also has a number of smaller projects like Algorithm Ink (based on Context Free) which generates art
from a formal grammar
. Raskin is a prolific writer and speaker, having appeared on the cover of Wired and given a TED
talk.
During the devastating earthquake in Haiti
in January 2010, Raskin mobilized with a group of other entrepreneurs (including Joshua Rosen, the art director of Steven Spielberg's movie A.I.) to create a crowd-source Web site to turn real-time information streams into meaningful map data, used by several major non-governmental organization
s helping on the group in Haiti hosted at Haiti.com.
Raskin is also an active phishing
researcher, best known for discovering the tabnabbing
attack; the technique takes advantage of open browser tabs to launch phishing sites without the user's knowledge.
In 2010, Raskin introduced the results of his work on the Firefox team at Mozilla: Tab Candy. Organizing tabs spatially, Tab Candy allowed the user to "organize browsing, to see all of our tabs at once, and focus on the task at hand."
Tab Candy initial design and alpha release has been seen as a major step forward in browsing, and called "the best new browser feature since tabs were invented" by Computerworld. Tab Candy was later renamed Firefox Panorama, although the feature was ultimately hidden by default in the initial Firefox 4 release.
By the end of 2010 Raskin announced he'd left Mozilla to begin a health-related venture at Massive Health start-up, with the goal to apply design principles to the problem of being healthy.
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
designer. He is the son of noted human-computer interface expert Jef Raskin
Jef Raskin
Jef Raskin was an American human-computer interface expert best known for starting the Macintosh project for Apple in the late 1970s.-Early years and education:...
.
Biography
Raskin gave his first talk on user interfaceUser interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
s at age 10 at the local San Francisco chapter of SIGCHI
SIGCHI
SIGCHI is the Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction, one of the Association for Computing Machinery's special interest groups....
. By 20, he was speaking internationally. He holds bachelor degrees in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. He attended Caltech briefly as a Ph.D. student in Physics, continuing the dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
research he had participated in at both the University of Chicago and University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
. The University of Chicago was the only school Raskin ever completed, having left middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
, high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, and graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
.
In 2004, Aza Raskin worked with Jef Raskin at the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces on Archy
Archy
Archy is a software system whose user interface poses a radically different approach for interacting with computers with respect to traditional graphical user interfaces. Designed by human-computer interface expert Jef Raskin, it embodies his ideas and established results about human-centered...
, a new user interface paradigm. The next year, he founded Humanized Inc. to continue work on the Archy paradigm. At Humanized, he created the language-based service-oriented Enso software.
In 2008, Raskin and the other Humanized employees were part of a hire-out by the Mozilla Corporation
Mozilla Corporation
The Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Mozilla Firefox and SeaMonkey Navigator web browsers and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client by a growing global community of...
. In 2010, Raskin was appointed Creative Lead for Firefox, having previously been head of user experience at Mozilla Labs. He has worked on several labs projects including Ubiquity
Ubiquity (Firefox)
Ubiquity, an add-on for Mozilla Firefox, is an abandonware collection of quick and easy natural-language-derived commands that act as mashups of web services, thus allowing users to get information and relate it to current and other webpages...
, Firefox for mobile, and wrote the original specification for the Geolocation API.
Raskin is a successful entrepreneur having founded two other companies, including Songza
Songza
Songza is a web radio that streams music for free. Songza is different from other web radio services for two reasons: the stations on Songza are made by people and Songza helps people find stations by personalizing the Songza experience based on a user's interests and by displaying an activity feed...
, a music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
meta-search tool, and Bloxes, which sells furniture made out of cardboard. Songza was acquired in late 2008 by Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
-backed Amie Street
Amie Street
Amie Street was an indie online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island...
. He also has a number of smaller projects like Algorithm Ink (based on Context Free) which generates art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
from a formal grammar
Formal grammar
A formal grammar is a set of formation rules for strings in a formal language. The rules describe how to form strings from the language's alphabet that are valid according to the language's syntax...
. Raskin is a prolific writer and speaker, having appeared on the cover of Wired and given a TED
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talk.
During the devastating earthquake in Haiti
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
in January 2010, Raskin mobilized with a group of other entrepreneurs (including Joshua Rosen, the art director of Steven Spielberg's movie A.I.) to create a crowd-source Web site to turn real-time information streams into meaningful map data, used by several major non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
s helping on the group in Haiti hosted at Haiti.com.
Raskin is also an active phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
researcher, best known for discovering the tabnabbing
Tabnabbing
Tabnabbing is a computer exploit and phishing attack, which persuades users to submit their login details and passwords to popular Web sites by impersonating those sites and convincing the user that the site is genuine. The attack's name was coined in early 2010 by Aza Raskin, a security researcher...
attack; the technique takes advantage of open browser tabs to launch phishing sites without the user's knowledge.
In 2010, Raskin introduced the results of his work on the Firefox team at Mozilla: Tab Candy. Organizing tabs spatially, Tab Candy allowed the user to "organize browsing, to see all of our tabs at once, and focus on the task at hand."
Tab Candy initial design and alpha release has been seen as a major step forward in browsing, and called "the best new browser feature since tabs were invented" by Computerworld. Tab Candy was later renamed Firefox Panorama, although the feature was ultimately hidden by default in the initial Firefox 4 release.
By the end of 2010 Raskin announced he'd left Mozilla to begin a health-related venture at Massive Health start-up, with the goal to apply design principles to the problem of being healthy.