Making tech Human again.
A research laboratory commited to make technology in a more human way
The human relation
A handful of researchers — Alan Kay, Bob Taylor, Butler Lampson, Adele Goldberg — set out to build a computer that a child could use. The GUI. The mouse. Ethernet. Object-oriented programming. The desktop metaphor. They didn't just invent technology - they invented how humans relate to it.
Augmenting human intellect
Doug Engelbart sat on stage with a wooden shell, a keyboard, and a mouse he'd built by hand. In 90 minutes, he showed the world hypertext, video conferencing, collaborative editing, and the networked computer. He called it "augmenting human intellect." The world called it the Mother of All Demos.
The Gap Has Widened Again
We carry supercomputers in our pockets. We talk to AI that writes poetry, codes applications, diagnoses diseases. People feel less in control, not more.
The interface has become the intermediary. The machine no longer serves us; we serve the machine's need for our attention, our data and our compliance.
We forgot what PARC knew: technology is not the goal. Augmenting human capability is.
Hippo Laboratories exists because someone has to remember.
The hippocampus is the part of the brain that forms new memories, connects experience to understanding, and helps us navigate both the real and the imagined. It is the bridge between what happened and what we learn.
The hippopotamus is massive, unapologetic, and lives half-submerged. They are equally at home in two worlds. Just like we want to be equally in touch with both innovative technology and human centered design.
Our Principles
- 01Augment HumansEvery tool we build should make the human more capable, not more dependent.
- 02Make it simpleAffordances are clear, you know what a product can and should do.
- 03Demo before you declare.Actions speak louder than words: Build it, show it, let people interact with it.
- 04Make it usefullWe build the tools we would want to work with, and those tools shape what we discover.
- 05Make it memorableEverything we build should leave a trace a feeling, an insight, a new way of seeing.
- 06Make it funSimilar to point 6, but important to reiterate. Technology should have character and personality.
Hippo Laboratory is open.
The mother of all demos was a beginning, not an end. We will try to pick up where they left.