Aza Raskin

Infobox_Person
name = Aza Raskin


imagesize = 200px
caption = Aza Raskin, 2005
birth_date = birth year and age|1984
birth_place = California, USA
education = Math, Physics B.S. (University of Chicago)
Physics, Computation and Neural Systems Ph.D (Caltech, dropped out)
occupation = interface guru, entrepreneur
residence =
spouse =
children =
parents = Jef Raskin, Linda S. Blum
website = http://www.azarask.in
religion =

Aza Raskin (born 1984) is an American user experience and product design expert [http://www.oneopensource.it/01/09/2008/interview-aza-raskin-head-of-user-experience-for-mozilla-labs/] , founder of Humanized, Inc., Songza, and Bloxes [http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2008/03/10/cardboard-key-to-a-green-office-space/] , and President of the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces. He is currently Head of User Experience at Mozilla Labs. He is the son of noted human-computer interface expert Jef Raskin.

Biography

Raskin gave his first talk on user interface at age 10 at the local San Francisco chapter of SIGCHI [ [http://www.baychi.org/calendar/19940913/ Tuesday, September 13, 1994: Monthly Program (BayCHI) ] ] . By 20, he was speaking internationally [ [http://europython-develop.zope.nl/conferences/epc2004/info/talks/applications/jacob02 EuroPython Society - The Failure of Applications ] ] . He holds bachelor degrees in math 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.Fact|date=September 2008 The University of Chicago was the only school Raskin ever completed, having left middle school, high school, and graduate school.Fact|date=September 2008 He is also an accomplished international French Horn soloist.Fact|date=September 2008

In 2005 Aza Raskin founded Humanized. He currently leads the Raskin Center for Human Interfaces [ [http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/001138.html Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff | InfoWorld | Mac creator Jef Raskin dies of cancer | February 28, 2005 04:59 PM | Jack McCarthy ] ] .

In November 2007, Raskin and Scott Robbin introduced Songza, a music meta-search tool showcasing innovative interface characteristics. In the week after launch, Songza was used to play over 1 million songs and has grown in popularity since then to become one of the major contendersFact|date=September 2008 in the online music space.

In 2008, Aza and other Humanized employees were part of a hire-out by the Mozilla Corporation [ [http://humanized.com/weblog/2008/01/16/joining-mozilla/ Humanized > Weblog: Joining Mozilla ] ] , where he has been defining the direction for Firefox Mobile [ [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/11/zoom-pan-throw-a-peek-at-what-firefox-mobile-could-be/ Zoom, Pan, Throw: A Peek At What Firefox Mobile Could Be ] ] . On August 26, 2008, Raskin launched the Ubiquity project at Mozilla [http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/] , which on the same day was positively reviewed in a blog posting by Robert Scoble [http://scobleizer.com/2008/08/26/mozilla_ubiquity/] .

Raskin is also the creator of Algorithm Ink, a port of the Context Free Art to Javascript. [http://azarask.in/projects/algorithm-ink/]

References

External links

* [http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20070125.html Wall Street Journal] , [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120475596188314697.html WSJ]
* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0702120019feb12,1,4225087.story?coll=chi-technology-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true Chicago Tribune]
* [http://www.zinio.com/express2?issue=244193199&folio=39 BusinessWeek]
* [http://slashdot.org/articles/07/01/25/1557211.shtml Slashdot] , [http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/08/27/1843222.shtml Slashdot]
* [http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/ui_breakthroughcomma.html Column from Communications of the ACM]
* [http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/v5i21_aza.html Interview with ACM Ubiquity]
* [http://www.dr.dk/P1/harddisken/Udsendelser/Arkiv/2005/10/205502.htm Interview with Danish National Radio]
* [http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/interview-ubiquity-mozilla-s-magic-mashup-maker-464021 Interview with Tech Radar]
* [http://www.heise.de/tr/artikel/86582 Interview with Technology Review] (in German)
* [http://venturebeat.com/2008/08/27/mozilla-labs-aza-raskin-talks-about-the-big-picture-for-ubiquity/ Interview with Venture Beat]
* [http://rchi.raskincenter.org/ Raskin Center for Human Interfaces]
* [http://www.humanized.com Humanized Inc.]

Writing

* [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning Never Use A Warning When You Mean Undo]
* [http://ajaxian.com/archives/death-of-the-desktop-by-aza-raskin Death of the Desktop]
* [http://www.humanized.com/weblog/2006/06/30/collaboration_made_simple_with_bracket_notation/ Collaboration Made Simple with Bracket Notation]
* [http://mags.acm.org/interactions/20080102/?pg=20&pm=2 The Linguistic Command Line]
* Contributor to "Phishing and Counter-Measures: Understanding the Increasing Problem of Electronic Identity Theft", ISBN 0-471-78245-9

Talks

* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6856727143023456694 Away with Applications: The Death of the Desktop (Google Tech Talk by Raskin)]