Designing Windows 95’s User Interface

It's hard to remember, but even though Windows 3.11 was extremely dominant at the time, it was by no means assured that Windows 95 would be the success that it was. The very first version missed wildly in some big ways (MSN was a folder integrated into the desktop, for example, and no TCP/IP support [*Edit: yes there was - I misremembered.]), but the core, underlying redesign of the GUI was so profoundly good it propelled Microsoft into a new…

I remember booting Windows 95 for the first time when it came out and being completely gobsmacked at how good it looked and felt. I was still a heavy Amiga fan back then, even though I was painfully aware that my favorite computer of all times was slowly falling behind. But it was still able to do preemptive multitasking, something that was still widely unavailable across all OS at the time (except for Windows NT). AmigaOS was still definitely better…

I do enjoy these sorts of things. There was a time when it was about "user interface design" instead of "user experience". Back then it was about "human interface guidelines", consistency, efficiency, and minimal use friction. Nowadays it's all about the prettiest farkle and the most novel interface. Where friction actually means "more time eyeballs spend looking at my design", and consistency has zero value. Teams, I'm looking at you. Every election app? You suck at usability, and my laptop…