Daniel Oran

@spjuraschek Maybe an AI notetaker could help. I haven't tried one yet, but (appropriately via Google Gemini AI!) Fathom.ai, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and Read.ai are possibilities.

I feel like I am increasingly in two zoom meetings at once...I found a way to arrange my headphones to listen to both, but I do find it difficult to focus on content at the same time (impossible to contribute simultaneously). Any tips out there?

@ibay770 @voidtools Sounds interesting, but I think you have to find someone who's currently working on Windows.

@danieloran thank you for making the start menu and taksbar! Can you make an option to use @voidtools everything from the start menu instead of windows search?

@ahernandez094 @wowstartsnow It does! But I don't think I was aware of it in 1993, when I was working on ClearView. I was more influenced by the tabbed UI that we were using for "property sheets," aka the Control Panel. And I think we borrowed that from Word.

@wowstartsnow @danieloran Is it me or does it look like At Ease from System 7?

ClearView was a tabbed UI designed to replace the Program Manager from Windows 3.1 (1992). Tested in early builds of Windows 95 (1995), it was designed by @danieloran. In response to user testing, it was eventually replaced by the Start Menu & Taskbar (also designed by Daniel).

@chwileczke @wowstartsnow With the benefit of nearly 32 (!) years of hindsight, I agree that those tab titles seem long. Maybe that's why I eventually shortened and repurposed "Start Something New" into "Start."

@wowstartsnow @danieloran Too early. Nobody was ready for browsing in tabs. We needed Firefox to discover the new purpose of tabs. Also, some tab titles are too long to me.

@Geekman74656 @wowstartsnow Me too!

@wowstartsnow That is the reason I stopped using Windows. I want a button called Start.

Windows Vista (2006) introduced the Start Orb: a new, orb-shaped, textless iteration of the Start button. Simply displaying the Windows logo, it exceeded the height of the Taskbar (a feature unique to Vista, as this changed with Windows 7’s (2009) debut of the taller “Superbar”).

@kurkosdr @wowstartsnow Fitts's law FTW! ;-)

@wowstartsnow @danieloran Can we appreciate for a moment the thought that went into the above? 1. The start button and tray are placed on the corners because the corners have "infinite" height and width in a mouse-driven UI. 2. Taskbar buttons have "infinite" height but limited width, so they're wider.

The creator of the Start Menu and Taskbar, @danieloran, originally designed them to be at the top of the screen. It was only later in development that they were moved to the bottom. The button was also originally named System, but users were reluctant to click this in testing. 🧐

@cnbcwatcher90 @wowstartsnow Here's some history about my Start Menu and Taskbar: archive.blogs.harvard.edu/danieloran/202…

@wowstartsnow @danieloran Makes it look very Mac-like. Maybe that was the intention 😏

@m_projects2 @wowstartsnow Looking back, that seems obvious, doesn't it? But at the time, I had to run a usability test to learn that no one wanted to click a button named System. I eventually repurposed part of some text that I had written for an earlier prototype: "Start Something New" became "Start."

@miras6_9 @wowstartsnow Because before I created the Taskbar, I had experimented with file-folder tabs at the top of screen for switching windows, in a prototype that I called ClearView. For a variety of reasons, I evolved those ClearViews tabs into the buttons of the Taskbar.

@CodeFoxtrot @wowstartsnow Sure, sign me up -- or should I say, start me up! :-)

@wowstartsnow @danieloran I think they need to bring @danieloran back, Win11 is in desperate need of a real taskbar and start menu.

@charlesmurray @implisci Sorry, GPT-4, none of those held an Edgar Pierce chair. Here's a more accurate (but incomplete) list: Edwin G. Boring B.F. Skinner Richard J. Herrnstein Robert Rosenthal Ken Nakayama Daniel Gilbert Matthew K. Nock Maybe this tweet will serve as training data for GPT-5!

@implisci Bizarre.

I have gotten a string of impressive and accurate results from chatGDP. Then yesterday I asked it to list the people who have held the Edgar Pierce chair in psychology at Harvard. chatGPT completely blew the answer, including its omission of Richard Herrnstein.

@DerekHoiem @konstidog @bradsilverberg @wowstartsnow That was created after June 1993 because it includes the Chicago Taskbar. Here's another bitmap I just found from exactly 30 years ago: February 4, 1993. This was the Cairo UI before Chicago, with the Tray at the bottom of the screen. No task switching, except for maybe Alt Tab!

@konstidog @danieloran @bradsilverberg @wowstartsnow So this is interesting to me now, where did this image come from?

Windows Vista dropped the word “Start” from the Start button. But, it may never have been there at all. @DerekHoiem, who worked on usability testing for Start, explained: “One thing that became controversial was whether or not to put the word “Start” next to the Windows logo.” 👀

@DerekHoiem @bradsilverberg @konstidog @wowstartsnow P.S. I coined the name "Taskbar." It didn't exist in Chicago (or Cairo) before June 1993.

@DerekHoiem @bradsilverberg @konstidog @wowstartsnow Hi Derek, this is what the Cairo specs included: a "Tray" at the bottom of the screen. (This bitmap is from January 11, 1993.) There was no task-switching functionality for Chicago to borrow. The primary contribution of Cairo to the Chicago UI was the faux-NeXT 3D grayscale look.

@bradsilverberg @DerekHoiem @konstidog @wowstartsnow That's exactly right. I created the Start Button and Taskbar in June 1993 for Chicago. In usability testing earlier that year, we'd found that the Cairo UI was too confusing. That was the genesis of an independent Chicago design effort.

@DerekHoiem @konstidog @wowstartsnow (I’m pretty sure that) Chicago invented the taskbar (and Start button). Not Cairo. @danieloran can confirm.

@bradsilverberg @wowstartsnow @TOMYSSHADOW @Windows @PaulaScher_Arch @Microsoft @joebelfiore We couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for giving us a chance to make something cool -- and enduring in a way that I don't think anyone anticipated.

@wowstartsnow @TOMYSSHADOW @Windows @PaulaScher_Arch @Microsoft Credit for the Win 95 UI design to @danieloran and @joebelfiore and the Win 95 team.

“Your name is @Windows. Why are you using a flag?” That’s what graphic designer @PaulaScher_Arch asked when @Microsoft approached her to design a new Windows logo. Paula took the logo back to its roots, with clean lines, shapes & one colour. It launched with Windows 8 in 2012.

@wowstartsnow @bradsilverberg @TOMYSSHADOW @Windows @PaulaScher_Arch @Microsoft @joebelfiore What a great picture! From left to right, that's Joe Belfiore, David Cole, Chris Guzak, Brad Silverberg, Chee Chew, and Teresa Martineau.

@bradsilverberg @TOMYSSHADOW @Windows @PaulaScher_Arch @Microsoft @danieloran @joebelfiore Yes, really great work everyone on the 95 team! It set the UI benchmark for future versions of Windows AND other operating systems, too. The solid branding and marketing was the cherry on top. 👌

@IanET @wowstartsnow For a long time, it seemed to me that they'd hung my painting upside down. But I'm used to the Taskbar at the bottom now.

An update for Windows 11 version 2H22 brings tabs to File Explorer. But did you know tabs were initially tested during the development of Windows 95 (1995)? 25 years on, they were tested again during the development cycle of Windows 10. Learn more @ youtu.be/OA_n-pjQgro! 🗂️👀

@wowstartsnow @bradsilverberg It is interesting, though, how ClearView anticipated what's become the de facto web browser UI.

@wowstartsnow @bradsilverberg ClearView did great in usability testing, but the feeling was that it was too limiting. At the time, I didn't agree, but looking back, I think I was mistaken. I don't think that ClearView would have survived as long as the Start Menu and Taskbar.