Kai Krause (b 1957 in Dortmund, Germany) is a pioneer and innovator in the field of software applications. He moved to California in 1976, and became expert in synthesizers and vocoders. He worked on about 30 records and movies, and got a Clio award for the sound effects on the first Star Trek movie.

Krause started several software companies -- most notable is MetaCreations, called MetaTools until the merger with Fractal Design in 1997 -- to build computer graphic applications like Kai's Power Tools, Bryce, Painter, Poser, LivePicture, Raydream, InfiniD, Show, Goo, and Soap. The unique quality of all the software created by him and his team is the consequent broadening of the category of graphical user interfaces. Aesthetic designs and deeper concepts of realtime interaction support the aspects of joy of use. User interface elements like soft shadows, rounded corners, and translucency -- which are today common on Mac OS X, Windows XP and Linux desktop systems -- appeared first in products of his companies.

Kai Krause has a Master's degree from the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA (1996), and a Doctorate h.c. from the University of Essen, Germany (1999). The Time Magazine honored him 1997 as "Future Leader", while Newsweek selected him as one of the 50 most influential thinkers of the next decade.

Today Kai Krause lives and works in the 1000-year-old castle Burg Rheineck near Bonn in Germany. The so called ByteBurg (http://www.byteburg.com/) is an incubator for ideas and innovation.

Personal quotes

• "An interface is about hiding complexity from the user, It's about guiding a process, without cognitive understanding of what goes on beneath. Interface design is the art of enveloping the observer in an enticing, "try this" exploration with ever-new elements and designs as the tools to triumph in new territories."

External links

• ByteBurg (http://www.byteburg.com/)
• Edge: Kai Krause (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/krause.html)
• mprove: MetaTools, MetaCreations, Meta...? (http://www.mprove.de/webdiary/meta/index.html)

de:Kai Krause