Male Microsoft Leaders Ignored Women Who Really Hated Clippy

I hated Clippy, not because it looked like it was leering at me, but because it was so intrusive.

[T]he engineers in the room were willing to throw out the focus-group-provided data—data which they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for—because it didn’t cohere to their expectations. The software shipped with 10 male assistants and two female assistants, she adds.It turned out to be one of the most unpopular features ever introduced—especially among female users.This isn’t the only case of how design that assumes the prototypical user is male could go awry. —The Atlantic

Post was last modified on 20 Sep 2015 1:10 pm

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  • This just sounds like another one of the Gender Warfare articles, and "especially among female users" sounds made up. **Everyone** I knew hated Clippy. If anything I would bet that women who are better at multitasking would hate it a little less than men who are worse at multitasking and likely feel more interrupted and distracted by it.

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Dennis G. Jerz