Microsoft Windows has undeniably had a large part in making computing personal.

For more than 20 years, Windows has remained a popular operating system for the everyday user at home, school, and in the office.What makes Windows so notable?

How has Windows evolved to suit the changing needs of its user base?

Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Introduces Power Windows. 1986. Print Brochure.

Jo seeks advice from her school's computer in Season 6, Episode 9 of The Facts of Life. NBC. 21 Nov. 1984. Television.

Jo seeks advice from her school's computer in Season 6, Episode 9 of The Facts of Life. NBC. 21 Nov. 1984. Television.

Jo seeks advice from her school's computer in Season 6, Episode 9 of The Facts of Life. NBC. 21 Nov. 1984. Television.

Jo seeks advice from her school's computer in Season 6, Episode 9 of The Facts of Life. NBC. 21 Nov. 1984. Television.

In their text Writer/Designer Arola, Sheppard, and Ball discuss elements of design and how the choices of the composer in representing these elements affect the rhetorical force of the artifact. These elements include organization, emphasis, and proximity.

In this release windows couldn’t yet overlap. This afforded a certain amount of proximity between tasks performed on the computer in 1985, when Windows was typically viewed on small monitors. Windows 1.0 emphasized the role of the window in compartmentalizing information on the computer. Windows opened with different accent colors to distinguish various open windows, and adding color to a medium where it was a new gesture.

In their text Writer/Designer Arola, Sheppard, and Ball discuss elements of design and how the choices of the composer in representing these elements affect the rhetorical force of the artifact. These elements include organization, emphasis, and proximity [listall].

In this release windows couldn’t yet overlap. In 1985, when Windows was typically viewed on small monitors, this afforded a certain amount of proximity between tasks performed on the computer. Windows 1.0 emphasized the role of the window in compartmentalizing information on the computer. Windows opened with different accent colors to distinguish various open windows, boasting color where it was more limited previous.

Windows relied on the MS-DOS Executive window for organization of material on the computer

Windows relied on the MS-DOS Executive window for organization of material on the computer as well as a proto-desktop visible at the bottom of the screen where files or applications could be temporarily stored. The desktop helped, but the MS-DOS didn’t organize contents in a very sophisticated way. Programs were interspersed with files making things quite troublesome when a lot of either existed.

Windows was advertised as a way to “enjoy the benefits of computing’s future path—graphically oriented software. (Microsoft)” Windows 1.0 was an intermediate step to this future. For the price point Windows was favorable, but users ultimately preferred the more streamlined look of other GUIs, namely the Macintosh.

Enter 1992

3.1 is one of the first commercially successful releases of Windows.

In the world of technology, video game consoles are also evolving into their own, with the release of the Super Nintendo, after the immense popularity of the NES.

Windows 3.1 is professional and more refined. Windows can overlap since 2.0, now with more contrastive shading in the buttons, complimented by the default colors of grey and navy unless the user adopts a color scheme...

The genre of personal computing is now coming in to its own, with a growing set common characteristics, including a hallmark trait—the use of a desktop metaphor.

and computers are starting to reflect this:

TV Film Props UK. “Computer and Phone” Dreams of a Life

This metaphor is important as its most common early associations was with office and business use, alongside files, folders, and notepads...

A noticeable, more usable upgrade from Windows 1 and 2, Windows 3.1 marked the start of a shift from mostly-business uses for computers to more casual use.

A major setback of Windows 3.1 was the lack of a hierarchy of information to navigate with. Often, users would open several windows at a time and use up the limited RAM, leading the environment to crash and necessitate a restart.

It still took a fair amount of learning to get used to Windows, as it was only a computing environment – many tasks, such as playing computer games or running more sophisticated programs still needed to be typed as commands in MS-DOS, Microsoft's text-based operating system.

Windows was getting better at bringing computers to a more general audience, but there was still something missing in its usability.

To test the waters for the usefulness of metaphor and literal meaning, Microsoft BOB was released for Windows 3.11 in the hopes to reach those who might find computers too abstract and complicated.

Fast forward to 1995...

Microsoft BOB took the desktop metaphor and made everything as literal as possible, turning the use of the computer almost into an interactive game, where tasks in the program resembled their real-world counterparts.

Characters like Rover, seen below, prompted the user with tips and walk-throughs of how to use various programs and functions of BOB, presented in a friendly font.

The one thing users liked about BOB was that it was a nice change from the rectangular GUI they were used to seeing.

It became quite clear that users preferred their metaphors less literal, and more computer-like, as technology was starting to become more integrated in people's lives.

In their article “Beyond Visual Metaphor,” Barbara Phillips and Edward McQuarrie explain such a phenomenon as an interplay between the richness and meaning of the metaphor:

“... greater pleasure … has been demonstrated for visual figures under conditions of incidental exposure as well as directed processing (pg. 127).”

In 1995, the Spice Girls were all the rage, pagers were popular, and people were sharing their favorite things on the Internet easily with sites like Geocities.

Emphasis was placed on the idea of the desktop as a home for important program shortcuts, files, folders,and the Recycle Bin, where deleted items get sent. Multitasking is encouraged with a greater ratio of workspace to GUI—the toolbars are kept towards the top and bottom of the screen with ample room between for interacting with programs and files.

Microsoft released a new version of Windows where the desktop metaphor was fully realized – Windows 95.

The GUI remains grey and navy, but now comes packaged with a default teal wallpaper. The extra color underscores the technological shift from smaller screens with limited colors to larger screens with more abundant color options.

The desktop metaphor is expanded to include the Network Neighborhood, a directory of computer networks the user is connected or has previously been, and My Briefcase, a synchronized folder connecting two folders, typically involving a removable drive for file portability.

The desktop metaphor is expanded to include the Network Neighborhood, a directory of computer networks the user is connected or has previously been,

The clock is now kept as a live time and date keeper in the lower right of the taskbar

The Start button and taskbar were introduced,windows could now be easily retrieved

Users could now

visualize computer directories using

cascading windows.

Windows 95 was Microsoft's first Windows standalone operating system. All functions could be carried out through the GUI, but MS-DOS programs and functions were backwards compatible—catering to both new audiences, like Jackie in this 1996 episode of Roseanne, and older audiences who preferred more in-depth interaction with their computer. This broader audience and successful GUI design easily facilitated the boom in the popularity of the Internet and continually increasing technologies.

Bliss: Windows XP (2001)

Streamlining the GUI

Return of computer companions

Beyond desktop metaphor

Harmony: Windows 7 (2009)

Muting the GUI

Emphasis on visual interaction

Windows 8 (2012)

Windows 8.1

Start screen

Future of UI: natural user interface