In 1997, Larry Tesler and Chris Espinosa of Apple gave a lecture called ‘Origins of the Apple human interface’. Fortunately the talk was recorded and recently the Computer History Museum, where the lecture was delivered, have uploaded it to YouTube.

The first part, presented by Tesler, is about the Lisa. He presents memos and shares anecdotes revealing how the Lisa’s interface was designed. What struck me was how many of the ideas they worked through have persisted to today. Espinosa’s second part is shorter and focuses more on the Apple II and Macintosh.

Unbelievably, Riccardo Mori transcribed the two hour-long video. This entry links to that transcription, which also features excellent commentary and highlights from Mori himself. He also provides some additional screenshots of the Lisa.

(Via Michael Tsai, who also shares what he found notable in the talk.)