For those scoffing at this, you might be interested to know that the brains behind this was Jef Raskin, he of the book "The Humane Interface" [0,1] and was responsible for conceiving and starting the Macintosh project. [2]
Plan 9's UI works in a quite similar way. I'm not up to date on my history of those systems, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is heavy cross pollination between the two.
Additionally, the fact that the writer of this post mentions Oberon's zooming user interface and the Canon Cat means I have to encourage anyone interested in this topic to read this wonderful book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Humane-Interface-Directions-Intera...
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The article linked to at the very beginning is not available on the original site. Here is an archive.org link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090416033922/http://stevenf.tum...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designi... [2] https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-2/mac-history/2012...
https://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing...
http://www.amazon.com/The-Humane-Interface-Directions-Intera...
Additionally, the fact that the writer of this post mentions Oberon's zooming user interface and the Canon Cat means I have to encourage anyone interested in this topic to read this wonderful book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Humane-Interface-Directions-Intera...
---
The article linked to at the very beginning is not available on the original site. Here is an archive.org link: http://web.archive.org/web/20090416033922/http://stevenf.tum...
The Design of Everyday Things (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d...)
The Humane Interface (http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-...)
Contextual Design (http://www.amazon.com/Contextual-Design-Customer-Centered-In...)