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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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[–] 2 points 1 month ago* (2 children)

I wouldn't be so sure. Fitts's law is well-known and could easily have been in the right state for this story to be true at the time. I remember learning specifically about how it applies to the corners of ths screen in a Human-Computer Interaction class once.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Fitt’s law being true or well known, and explaining why it works doesn’t mean they hired a behavioral psychologist.

    This is like saying an architect hired physicist to explain why arches work; when everyone already knows that they work.

    With the other UIs, like Mac’s next step and dock; they saw the same basic concept and had the ability to see real world feedback from that, no behavioral psychologist needed.

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