![“Microsoft research has shown that the more users feel that working with a computer is like working with another person, the more intuitive it becomes. The “social” interaction is more predictable, and, as a result, users find the computer easier to master and enjoy.
Research for the Bob product included close collaboration with two of the leading experts in human-machine interactions, Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves, professors at Stanford University and directors of a major project studying social responses to communication technologies at the Center for the Study of Language and Information. Their studies have focused on the automatic, unconscious and powerful social responses that all users have to computer programs and provided a research foundation for the development of the Social Interface.” [1]
“In addition to the personal guides, Bob offers users a natural “Home” environment for easy navigation. Users can personalize their home environments, choosing from more than 40 different combinations of rooms and home styles, and they can “decorate” their rooms and even change the scenery outside the rooms’ windows to suit their unique tastes. From within any room, users access Bob programs and can launch any other Windows(TM)- or MS-DOS(R)-based applications they have installed.” [1]
“Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product, released in March 1995, which provided a new, nontechnical interface to desktop computing operations. Despite its ambitious nature, Bob was one of Microsoft’s more visible product failures. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer mentioned Bob as an example of a situation ‘… where we decided that we have not succeeded and let’s stop’.” [2]
ALL IMAGES OF VARIOUS ROOM STYLES, VIEWS AND OBJECTS TAKEN FROM MICROSOFT’S “BOB”, 1995, VIA D2CA.ORG’S ABANDONWARE ARCHIVE; TEXT TAKEN FROM “MICROSOFT BOB COMES HOME: A BREAKTHROUGH IN HOME COMPUTING” [1], VIA SEATTLE PI, AND FROM WIKIPEDIA.ORG [2]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxlyp5mICS1qz93lzo1_500.jpg)
“Microsoft research has shown that the more users feel that working with a computer is like working with another person, the more intuitive it becomes. The “social” interaction is more predictable, and, as a result, users find the computer easier to master and enjoy.
Research for the Bob product included close collaboration with two of the leading experts in human-machine interactions, Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves, professors at Stanford University and directors of a major project studying social responses to communication technologies at the Center for the Study of Language and Information. Their studies have focused on the automatic, unconscious and powerful social responses that all users have to computer programs and provided a research foundation for the development of the Social Interface.” [1]
“In addition to the personal guides, Bob offers users a natural “Home” environment for easy navigation. Users can personalize their home environments, choosing from more than 40 different combinations of rooms and home styles, and they can “decorate” their rooms and even change the scenery outside the rooms’ windows to suit their unique tastes. From within any room, users access Bob programs and can launch any other Windows(TM)- or MS-DOS(R)-based applications they have installed.” [1]
“Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product, released in March 1995, which provided a new, nontechnical interface to desktop computing operations. Despite its ambitious nature, Bob was one of Microsoft’s more visible product failures. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer mentioned Bob as an example of a situation ‘… where we decided that we have not succeeded and let’s stop’.” [2]
ALL IMAGES OF VARIOUS ROOM STYLES, VIEWS AND OBJECTS TAKEN FROM MICROSOFT’S “BOB”, 1995, VIA D2CA.ORG’S ABANDONWARE ARCHIVE; TEXT TAKEN FROM “MICROSOFT BOB COMES HOME: A BREAKTHROUGH IN HOME COMPUTING” [1], VIA SEATTLE PI, AND FROM WIKIPEDIA.ORG [2]
