Comment by Telaneo
5 hours ago
The amount of research that went into making Windows 95 a user friendly OS is actually quite impressive. They didn't have all the kinks ironed out, and they couldn't foresee everything, but it's was a pretty solid effort.
I wonder how much research went into Windows 11, or 10 or 8 for that matter, and to what ends that research was made.
There actually is a concrete reference for the Windows 95 era research. Microsoft published detailed results from their usability work in the mid-90s, including task based testing with real users, error analysis, and iterative design changes.
Article title: The Windows® 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering (1996)
Link: https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/238386.238611