Usability and Scalability: Lessons from Windows

In the late 1980s, Windows was still earning its place. Most PCs lived in a world shaped by MS-DOS: fast to boot, efficient for power users, and highly unforgiving for the broader user base. The GUI was not a given. It was a promise—one that had to be proven every day in code, in design reviews, and, most of all, in the hands of people who did not think of themselves as “computer people.”