Friends,
Thirty years ago today, Xerox introduced to the public a computer that changed the world, the Xerox 8010, commonly known as the Xerox Star. Why should you care? Well, it was the first computer available to the public with a graphical user interface. The first with a mouse. The first designed to be networked into workgroups with shared printers and files. The first to use a document collaboration protocol based on hypertext, with embedded links to other documents.
Essentially, everything you know about how computers are supposed to look and how they’re supposed to work was either invented or refined at Xerox PARC and marketed first in this machine. And you could have all of this for the low, low price of $16,595 back in 1981 (which would be worth roughly $41,525 today, in case you were wondering).
So go out today and hug an interface designer to celebrate, won’t you?
– bob