The Weird History of the Microsoft Windows Start Button

Gamoid writes: Windows 3.1 was so complicated that even a Boeing propulsion scientist couldn't figure out how to open a word processor. A behavioral scientist, who once worked with BF Skinner at Harvard, was brought in to Microsoft to figure out what was going wrong — and he came up with the Start button, for which he holds the patent today. It's a weird and cool look at how simple ideas aren't obvious.

Comments

Re:It's not weird at all.

[fustakrakich]

Somebody was facing a problem. He thought about the problem.

He looked at System 7

He proposed a solution. It worked.

Re:MenuChoice and HAM (1992)

[dbIII]

Later on I'm surprised the Win7 advertisements didn't go like this:
"I'm a PC and looking like a Mac was my idea."

Re:The only intuitive interface is the nipple

[Anonymous Coward]

Nipples are like remote controlled cars.
They're intended for kids, but it's always the dads who end up playing with them.