Susan Kare

A graphic designer who helped give Macintosh its visual language through screen fonts and interface imagery. Her accounts reveal the craft of finding a useful symbol, working within a display, and revising with other people.

Design at the size people will see

Kare designed early Macintosh screen fonts, including the system typeface that became Chicago. Her account credits conversations with Andy Hertzfeld and Jobs, and a script font contributed by Bill Atkinson.

The tools mattered too. Hertzfeld describes building a pixel editor for Kare that combined an enlarged grid with an actual-size view, drawing on Atkinson’s MacPaint editing approach.

Find out what a symbol communicates

In a 2000 interview, Kare recalled producing alternatives and informally showing them to people. For MacPaint’s fill function, a pouring paint can communicated the intended action better than alternatives such as a roller.

Our interpretation: change the viewpoint from the designer’s intention to the reader’s interpretation. Reperspective offers a way to make that shift. Ask what people actually see before supplying the answer you hoped they would give.

Look beyond your immediate field

Kare described books of symbols, road signs, art, and craft as sources of ideas. Inspiration could guide her thinking without becoming an image copied directly into the interface.

She also recalled avoiding English-language puns because they would not translate well. A symbol’s apparent simplicity may depend on experience that its audience does not share.