Humanizing
Published Feb. 11, 2021
Facebook’s
newsfeed update echoed developer Aza Raskin’s objectives when he set out to
build an improved reading interface for his Humanized Reader app in 2006. An
example of an aggregator or directory grouping content from different websites,
Humanized Reader was an early version of our contemporary feeds. Reflecting on
Google’s search interface in a blog post of that same year, Raskin points out
that: “The problem is that every time a user is required to click to the next
page, they are pulled from the world of content to the world of navigation […]
Because it breaks their train of thought and forces them to stop reading, it
gives them the opportunity to leave the site. And a lot of the times, they do. The
take away? Don't force the user to ask for more content: just give it to them”.
Raskin wanted to make navigation invisible, even natural, to the point where it
can’t be distinguished from the users’ desires. Inadvertently, Raskin described
endless scrolling as an extension of our biological functions. ‘Humanizing’, thus,
acquired a slightly different meaning; one that rendered UI navigation as
unavoidable as the “train of thought” in our mind
Feautured sounds:
animal crossing ~ new horizons lofi - Closed on Sunday
Featured memes/genres: lo-fi hip-hop beats to study/relax to;
Animal Corssing New Horizons
Other related media: What was the first site to implement infinite scroll? - Quora;
Don’t make me click - Google TechTalks on YouTube; Reading, Humanized - Get Humanized Blog (28 Apr. 2006);
No more pages - Get Humanized Blog (25 Apr. 2006);
Our Philosophy Rule 5 - Get Humanized Blog;
I’m so sorry, says inventor of endless online scrolling - The Times (27 Apr. 2019)
animal crossing ~ new horizons lofi - Closed on Sunday
Featured memes/genres: lo-fi hip-hop beats to study/relax to;
Animal Corssing New Horizons
Other related media: What was the first site to implement infinite scroll? - Quora;
Don’t make me click - Google TechTalks on YouTube; Reading, Humanized - Get Humanized Blog (28 Apr. 2006);
No more pages - Get Humanized Blog (25 Apr. 2006);
Our Philosophy Rule 5 - Get Humanized Blog;
I’m so sorry, says inventor of endless online scrolling - The Times (27 Apr. 2019)