Daniel Oran

Behavioral science, AI, healthcare, education, product design.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@spjuraschek Maybe an AI notetaker could help.

I haven't tried one yet, but (appropriately via Google Gemini AI!) https://t.co/ppAEj8cq0f, https://t.co/IMAnixGBp8, https://t.co/ian5ulg5n7, and https://t.co/uc2STBnXfS are possibilities.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

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

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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."

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@Geekman74656 @wowstartsnow Me too!

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

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

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@cnbcwatcher90 @wowstartsnow Here's some history about my Start Menu and Taskbar:
https://t.co/WYd1WGYYkS

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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."

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

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

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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!

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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!

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

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

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

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

[Daniel Oran @danieloran]

@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.