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The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

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Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#241

Post by h2zizzle »

bartread wrote: post #185
linguae wrote: post #15

Steve Jobs is famous for his 1996 quote about Microsoft not having taste ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOzGI4MqSU ). I disagree; as much as I love the classic Mac OS and Jobs-era Mac OS X, and despite my feelings about Microsoft's monopolistic behavior, 1995-2000 Microsoft's user interfaces were quite tasteful, in my opinion, and this was Microsoft's most tasteful period. I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/…

I think the interesting larger observation here is the perhaps both Microsoft and Apple peaked in their usability design between the mid-90s and late-aughts (I think Apple stayed at their peak for longer, particularly when you start thinking about the iPhone which, at the time, was streets ahead of what any other company was offering), and have both been on a down trend ever since. Why is that though? Why does that a…

I think there's something to be said for the loss of institutional knowledge, as that was the time when the first set of Baby Boomers would have been transitioning out of operational roles or the workforce altogether. My experience as a Millennial is that they and older Gen-X, as a cohort, have been quite jealous of their accumulated expertise and generally reticent to pass it along, especially when they'd learned to keep every edge possible in the hyper-competitive job markets of the 80s and 90s. It's possible that a lot of knowledge just disappeared, leaving the younger generations to reinvent the wheel at a cuil over the circumstances that brought about the UX they'd grown up with.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#242

Post by LtWorf »

windowsrookie wrote: post #236
LtWorf wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had one from 2010 and the bright light wasn't even the main problem at night. The charger emitted an annoying high pitch sound so I'd have to unplug it. And the device turned itself on randomly at night, and the CD-ROM reader and fans would spin up and make noise. I've now used a macbook air for work and I noticed that even when in "standby" for a week my router had a DHCP lease for it. So they still turn on for no…

You can disable "Wake for Network Access" in the battery settings if you want. It's a convenience option that lets MacOS check for new iMessages and other updates while it's asleep. That way all your messages are loaded immediately when you wake the device.

I didn't even set it up with an apple account and thus I cannot possibly get any messages from iMessages.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#243

Post by LtWorf »

M95D wrote: post #231
LtWorf wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides the boot (which windows 3 didn't even do so I don't see why we are comparing it), from clicking on the start menu the 1st time after boot, to the start menu actually appearing on screen it would take 1-2 minutes to populate on windows 95, while on windows 3 on the same machine there would be no such issue.

This is not true. Win95 start menu appears instantly. I dare you to prove me wrong. You are probably thinking of Win98 menu where they added IE.

I am thinking of windows 95 with a computer from 1995, in the year 1995. If you use it on a vm today… yeah thanks for not proving anything.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#244

Post by chocochunks »

askvictor wrote: post #157
f1shy wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> release something really really mind mindbogglingly stupid that it should be embarrassing I’m still trying to understand who came with the idea of charging the mouse from under, instead of from a position that would allow to use the mouse while charging…

I believe that was intentional, to prevent people using it plugged in, which would mean most people would keep it plugged in all the time, so it wouldn't be a wireless mouse anymore, but also degrade the battery lifespan.

It was intentional to recycle the design of the Magic Mouse 1 which used AA batteries. The Magic Touchpad and Keyboard came out the exact same day as the Magic Mouse 2 and they don't share the Magic Mouse 2's stupid design. They both have perfectly usable ports on the front and even work when wired without pairing.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#245

Post by h2zizzle »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #144
zzo38computer wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have used both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Windows 95 does have some significant benefits (e.g. you can start Windows programs from the DOS prompt (I seem to remember that you cannot do this in Windows 3.1 and in Windows 95 you can, but I am not sure if I remember correctly), and the WIN+R shortcut, and some others), but also many problems (although some can be avoided by changing stuff in the registry; I had done…

You could change the option to hide file extensions in the explorer settings windows; no registry tweak was needed. Not wanting spaces in file names is certainly a bold opinion! I think you'll find yourself in a very small minority there.

I don't have strong feelings either way, but I can see the perspective that underscores should suffice, and that introducing white space into filenames makes certain file and data management tasks more difficult and unpredictable.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#246

Post by V99 »

throw_away_623 wrote: post #145
tavavex wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the exact reason has never been documented, if you look at that mouse's design, you'll see that its first generation had a regular battery compartment on the bottom. When gen 2 arrived, they fully reused the same shell and only replaced that bottom part to now be an integrated battery with a charging port instead of a compartment for AAs. Moving the charging port would've required a brand new design, since ever…

The reason people talk about the mouse is that it's one of the worst ideas they ever had. At the time, I remember someone claimed that the reason was that they were afraid people could leave it plugged in for convenience. Apple thought that would lead to a worse experience because their mouse was designed to be used wirelessly. I think it was actually more related to aesthetic "icks" by the designers, because people…

This is not even close to the worst ideas Apple ever had, even if you're only talking about mice.

The original USB mouse (for the first iMac) was round, so you couldn't orient it in your hand without looking at it constantly.

And it came with a very short cord (because there was a port on the right side of the keyboard to plug it into). But then the laptops got updated with USB ports and they were only on the LEFT side of the case.

For at least a year or two you could not buy an Apple mouse for your Apple PowerBook and use it in your right hand, because the cord was too short to go around the case.

Eventually they shipped a "Pro" mouse with revolutionary elongated shape and longer cord. (...and optical tracking, and what looked like zero buttons, which were pretty neat)

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#247

Post by kmeisthax »

alexdbird wrote: post #159
throw_away_623 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason people talk about the mouse is that it's one of the worst ideas they ever had. At the time, I remember someone claimed that the reason was that they were afraid people could leave it plugged in for convenience. Apple thought that would lead to a worse experience because their mouse was designed to be used wirelessly. I think it was actually more related to aesthetic "icks" by the designers, because people…

Honestly, as a user of the mouse, I think the main reason people talk about the mouse is bike shedding. Charging isn't a problem in actual use, but everyone sure has an opinion on it. There are plenty of contenders for 'worst ideas they ever had' and this just isn't up there.

"If you see a stylus, they blew it"

That's a quote from Steve Jobs about how basically all of their competition (except Google) had made the mistake of trying to ship desktop software on phones. The problem with the stylus is that it's a hardware workaround for a software problem: the sort of cost-reduced engineering you get when a company wants to "have a mobile strategy" without actually putting in the time and effort to make something good.

The Magic Mouse is the exact same kind of "we couldn't care less" cost-reduction. The charging port is on the bottom because that's the only place you can put a charging port with the existing all-glass design. Because they re-used an existing design intended for removable batteries. This is such an uncharacteristically un-Apple move, and one so obviously detrimental to the design of the device, that people (including myself) actually psyopped themselves into thinking Apple had deliberately designed the mouse to enforce wireless usage.

And, to be clear, Apple has never done that.

All their other peripherals with rechargeable batteries in them will let you use them fully wired if you plug them in. In fact, if you somehow engineered a way to move the charging port somewhere less stupid, the Magic Mouse probably would work plugged-in, too.

If you see a charging port on the bottom, they blew it.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#248

Post by Arainach »

moron4hire wrote: post #211
omnibrain wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s also stupid in terms of screen real estate. You can't really blame MS that around the same time screen manufacturers started to switch to 16:9 for cost reasons and cheap laptops all only offered a 1366x786 resolution.

The whole "UIs got smaller because the aspect ratio got more rectangular" thing never really made sense to me because 786 > 600. The screens got bigger in both dimensions, regardless of them getting bigger in one more than they got bigger in the other.

Pixels aren't physical space. The number of square inches remained similar.

A wider aspect ratio means that a horizontal line takes up a larger percentage of the overall screen and is more costly.

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#249

Post by bombcar »

treyd wrote: post #197
askvictor wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that was intentional, to prevent people using it plugged in, which would mean most people would keep it plugged in all the time, so it wouldn't be a wireless mouse anymore, but also degrade the battery lifespan.

Maybe they should have made the batteries replaceable and make it operable without batteries installed. Or just ship a wired version for the people who want that.

That wired hockey puck mouse was an abomination

Re: The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)

#250

Post by benj111 »

askvictor wrote: post #157
f1shy wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> release something really really mind mindbogglingly stupid that it should be embarrassing I’m still trying to understand who came with the idea of charging the mouse from under, instead of from a position that would allow to use the mouse while charging…

I believe that was intentional, to prevent people using it plugged in, which would mean most people would keep it plugged in all the time, so it wouldn't be a wireless mouse anymore, but also degrade the battery lifespan.

Right.... So.... Add some charging circuitry. Is it a problem if people don't use it as a wireless mouse anyway.

Yes it's very apple to force users to use devices how Apple wants, but that isn't a particularly good reason.

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