The iconic Start button in Windows 95, a feature that fundamentally changed how users interacted with their computers, was designed by a psychologist with a unique background: training chimpanzees to use keyboards. This fascinating detail has resurfaced through discussions surrounding Dave W. Plummer, often called the father of the Windows Task Manager.
Cross-Disciplinary Origins of a Computing Staple
Recent conversations, particularly on the X platform, have highlighted Plummer’s insights into the evolution of the Windows Start menu and taskbar. In response to debates about whether the Windows 95 taskbar was inspired by Steve Jobs’ NeXTSTEP Dock, former Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore confirmed that it was not.
Delving deeper into the origins of the Start button, Windows Latest reports that its design stems from an unconventional experiment. Danny Oran, a behavioral psychologist who had previously worked in B.F. Skinner’s lab training chimpanzees on keyboard devices, joined Microsoft in 1992. It was Oran who spearheaded the design of the Windows 95 Start menu and taskbar.
From ‘System’ to ‘Start’: Naming and User Experience
Oran’s initial vision for the launch feature was to name it ‘System’. However, during testing with Windows 3.1, it was discovered that users were reluctant to click on it. Even a propulsion systems engineer from Boeing, participating in the tests, admitted to not understanding how to operate the operating system.
In a 2015 interview, Oran recalled the challenges, stating, “He was a bona fide rocket scientist, and even he couldn’t figure out Windows.” The renaming to ‘Start’ proved to be a breakthrough, as users intuitively grasped its function without needing any explanation.
Strategic Placement: Fitts’s Law and Reading Habits
The placement of the Start button in the bottom-left corner of the screen was a deliberate choice, influenced by two key factors: Fitts’s Law and common reading habits.
Fitts’s Law in Action
Fitts’s Law, a cornerstone theory in human-computer interaction, posits that the time it takes to acquire a target is dependent on the distance to and size of the target. By positioning the button in a corner, users could simply flick their mouse towards that area, achieving a click without needing precise aiming.
Reading Direction Matters
The decision to favor the left side over the right was based on the prevalent reading direction—left to right. A menu that appears from the left side aligns more naturally with this cognitive flow. Joe Belfiore corroborated this, confirming that the placement was a conscious decision that considered both reading order and ease of mouse ‘flicking’.
A Minor Glitch and its Solution
Interestingly, the initial implementation of Windows 95 had a small oversight. A few pixels of space were left between the button and the screen’s edge, rendering the ‘flick’ action ineffective if the mouse precisely hit the corner. This was rectified in Windows 98, where the clickable area of the button was extended to the very edge of the screen.
This blend of psychological insight, user testing, and ergonomic principles demonstrates how foundational elements of modern operating systems were developed through meticulous, and sometimes unconventional, design processes.
