Rae Assist

Designed in 1992

Rae Assist was one of the first commercially sold software products I designed and developed during my time at Rae Technology, a startup I co-founded. It was a revolutionary free-form personal information manager designed to help users organize and manage their personal data on early tablet computing devices. Rae Assist stood out from other solutions at the time by allowing users to link any object to any other object within the system, creating a seamless, many-to-many relationship between data points. This intuitive approach enabled users to navigate through their contacts, calendars, and tasks with unprecedented ease.

The product was well ahead of its time, introducing a novel way of interacting with data long before modern smartphones and information management tools. As the primary architect and designer, I led the development of the core software architecture and user interface, which set Rae Assist apart in a market dominated by more rigid, hierarchical systems. This project not only solidified my passion for user experience design but also helped shape the future of data management tools by blending creativity with technology. Rae Assist was my first "shrink-wrapped" software product, published by Rae Technology, and marked a major milestone in my career as a designer and product architect.