The Interface of Kai Krause's Software (2003)
My earlier post about Kai Kraus:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27288454">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27288454</a><p>DonHopkins on May 26, 2021 | parent | context | favorite | on: Use native context menus on Mac OS<p>Love him or hate him (and I do both), Kai was all about cultivating his adulating cult of personality and dazzling everyone with his totally unique breathtakingly beautiful bespoke UIs! How can you possibly begrudge him and his fans of that simple pleasure? ;)<p>In the modest liner notes of one of the KPT CDROMS, Kai wrote a charming rambling story about how he was once passing through airport security, and the guard immediately recognized him as the User Interface Rock Star that he was: the guy who made Kai Power Tools and Power Goo and Bryce!<p>Kai&#x27;s Power Goo - Classic &#x27;90s Funware! [LGR Retrospective]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=xt06OSIQ0PE">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=xt06OSIQ0PE</a><p>&gt;Revisiting the mid 1990s to explore the world of gooey image manipulation from MetaTools! Kai Krause worked on some fantastically influential user interfaces too, so let&#x27;s dive into all of it.<p>&gt;&quot;Now if you&#x27;re like me, you must be thinking, ok, this is all well and good, sure, but who the heck is Kai? His name&#x27;s on everything, so he must be special. OH HE IS! Say hello to Kai Krause. Embrace his gaze! He is an absolute legend in certain circles, not just for his software contributions, but his overall life story.&quot; [...]<p>&gt;&quot;... and now owns and resides in the 1000 year old tower near Rieneck Castle in Germany that he calls Byteburg. Oh, and along the way, he found time to work on software milestones like Poser, Bryce, Kai&#x27;s Power Tools, and Kai&#x27;s Super Goo, propagating what he called &quot;Padded Cell&quot; graphical interface design. &quot;The interface is also, I call it the &#x27;Padded Cell&#x27;. You just can&#x27;t hurt yourself.&quot; -Kai<p>But all in all, it&#x27;s a good thing for humanity that Kai said &quot;Nein!&quot; to Apple&#x27;s offer to help them redesign their UI:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vintageapplemac.com&#x2F;files&#x2F;misc&#x2F;MacWorld_UK_Feb_2000.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vintageapplemac.com&#x2F;files&#x2F;misc&#x2F;MacWorld_UK_Feb_20...</a><p>&gt;read me first, Simon Jary, editor-in-chief, MacWorld, February 2000, page 5:<p>&gt;When graphics guru Kai Krause was in his heyday, he once revealed to me that Apple had asked him to help redesign the Mac&#x27;s interface. It was one of old Apple&#x27;s very few pieces of good luck that Kai said &quot;nein&quot;<p>&gt;At the time, Kai was king of the weird interface - Bryce, KPT and Goo were all decidedly odd, leaving users with lumps of spherical rock to swivel, and glowing orbs to fiddle with just to save a simple file. Kai&#x27;s interface were fun, in a Crystal Maze kind of way. He did show me one possible interface, where the desktop metaphor was adapted to have more sophisticated layers - basically, it was the standard desktop but with no filing cabinet and all your folders and documents strewn over your screen as if you&#x27;d just turned on a fan to full blast and aimed it at your neatly stacked paperwork.<p>The Interface of Kai Krause’s Software:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mprove.de&#x2F;script&#x2F;99&#x2F;kai&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mprove.de&#x2F;script&#x2F;99&#x2F;kai&#x2F;index.html</a><p>&gt;Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini writes about Kansei Engineering:<p>&gt;»Since the year A.D. 618 the Japanese have been creating beautiful Zen gardens, environments of harmony designed to instill in their users a sense of serenity and peace. […] Every rock and tree is thoughtfully placed in patterns that are at once random and yet teeming with order. Rocks are not just strewn about; they are carefully arranged in odd-numbered groupings and sunk into the ground to give the illusion of age and stability. Waterfalls are not simply lined with interesting rocks; they are tuned to create just the right burble and plop. […]<p>&gt;Kansei speakes to a totality of experience: colors, sounds, shapes, tactile sensations, and kinesthesia, as well as the personality and consistency of interactions.« [Tog96, pp. 171]<p>&gt;Then Tog comes to software design:<p>&gt;»Where does kansei start? Not with the hardware. Not with the software either. Kansei starts with attitude, as does quality. The original Xerox Star team had it. So did the Lisa team, and the Mac team after. All were dedicated to building a single, tightly integrated environment – a totality of experience. […]<p>&gt;KPT Convolver […] is a marvelous example of kansei design. It replaces the extensive lineup of filters that graphic designers traditionally grapple with when using such tools as Photoshop with a simple, integrated, harmonious environment.<p>&gt;In the past, designers have followed a process of picturing their desired end result in their mind, then applying a series of filters sequentially, without benefit of undo beyond the last-applied filter. Convolver lets users play, trying any combination of filters at will, either on their own or with the computer’s aid and advice. […] Both time and space lie at the user’s complete control.« [Tog96, pp. 174]<p>METAMEMORIES:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;systemfolder.wordpress.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;03&#x2F;01&#x2F;metamemories&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;systemfolder.wordpress.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;03&#x2F;01&#x2F;metamemories&#x2F;</a><p>&gt;Anyone who has been using Macs for at least the last ten years will surely remember Viewpoint Corporation’s products. No? Well, Viewpoint Corporation was previously MetaCreations. Still doesn’t ring a bell? Maybe MetaTools will. Or the name Kai Krause. Or, even better, the names of the software products themselves — Kai’s Power Tools, Kai’s Power Goo, Kai’s Photo Soap, Bryce, Painter, Poser… See? Now we’re talking.<p>Macintosh Garden: KPT Bryce 1.0.1:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;apps&#x2F;bryce-1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;apps&#x2F;bryce-1</a><p>&gt;Experienced 3D professionals will appreciate the powerful controls that are included, such as surface contour definition, bumpiness, translucency, reflectivity, color, humidity, cloud attributes, alpha channels, texture generation and more.<p>&gt;KPT Bryce features easy point-and-click commands and an incredible user interface that includes the Sky &amp; Fog Palette, which governs Bryce&#x27;s virtual environment; the Create Palette, which contains all the objects needed to create grounds, seas and mountains; an Edit Palette, where users select and edit all the objects created; and the Render Palette, which has all the controls specific to rendering, such as setting the size and resolutions for the final image.<p>MACFormat, Issue 23, April 1995, p. 28-29:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;screenshots&#x2F;MacFormat_23_028.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;screenshots&#x2F;MacFormat_23_029_0.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;macintoshgarden.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;...</a><p>&gt;He intends to challenge everything you thought you knew about the way you use computers. &#x27;I maintain that everything we now have will be thrown away. Every piece of software -- including my own -- will be complete and utter junk. Our children will laugh about us -- they&#x27;ll be rolling on the floor in hysterics, pointing at these dinosaurs that we are using.<p>&gt;&#x27;Design is a very tricky thing. You don&#x27;t jump from the Model T Fort straight to the latest Mercedes -- there&#x27;s a million tiny things that have to be changed. And I&#x27;m not trying to come up with lots of little ideas where afterwards you go, &quot;Yeah, of course! It&#x27;s obvious!&quot;<p>&gt;&#x27;Here&#x27;s an easy one. For years we had eight character file-names on computers. Now that we have more characters, it seems ludicrous, am historical accident that it ever happened.<p>&gt;&#x27;What people don&#x27;t realize is that we have hundreds more ideas that are equally stupid, buried throughout the structure of software design -- from the interface to the deeper levels of how it works inside.&#x27;