Canon Cat Documents Archive
appliance.io
appliance.io
While technologically they are decades out of date, from a UX perspective, there is a lot to be learned from using one.
Some of the concepts, such as a document-oriented system that never requires the user to launch or quit an application, nor to "save" their work, would still represent a leap forward today.
I'd love to see a modern OS built with the concepts of a humane interface today. Even the iOS and Android systems carry legacies of the WIMP interface instead of Raskin's humane approach.
I've spoken at the BIL Conference about the idea of bringing Jef Raskin's (and others) ideas into the modern age: http://www.bilconference.com/videos/rethinking-modern-gui-ja...
This is a great historical repository, but worth reading for the ways some of the concepts can be used today.
And of course, anyone who's interested in what made the Cat special should read Jef Raskin's book: http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-...
Have you looked at iOS or Mac OS X Lion?
While saving work is thankfully disappearing as a paradigm in iOS (I don't use Lion, so don't know), it's still application-based, meaning that if there's a tool I like in one app, I don't have access to it unless that app is open, and I can't call the tool up on its own.
iOS is a major leap forward, but at its heart, it's still more suited to consumption than creation.
I'll mention this to the community and see if these files can get a longer-lasting distribution mechanism.