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Windows 95's Start menu was invented by a chimpanzee-lab psychologist: 'Even a rocket scientist couldn't figure out Windows' (www.windowslatest.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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Former Microsoft exec explain how a behavioral psychologist utilized Fitts's law to place the Windows 95 Start button in the bottom-left.

Paywall?

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[–] 14 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Unless you're running multiple displays. Which I know wasn't a thing in Win95 times, so moving to the left corner with the mouse was a guaranteed contact. I wonder if later 10/11 changed their default to the center for related reasoning, more people using centered taskbar icons in many OSes, including WIndows, and not needing help to find icons.

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  • [–] 50 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    I wonder if later 10/11 changed their default to the center for related reasoning

    As far as I can tell, the rationale for most design changes in Windows is that someone is getting paid to make design changes in Windows.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    Not that it is the focus of your point, but with some specific display drivers, you could use more than one display in Win95. Technically it was possible in DOS as well with some wacky setups. It became officially supported in Win 98, I used the hell out of it back then.

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