Clippy: The Unauthorized Biography

a16z
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2019–2023
YouTube
18K views · 7 years ago · documentary · evergreen

A feature-length documentary from a16z telling the story of Clippy, Microsoft Office's animated paperclip assistant, from its origins in earlier Microsoft interface-agent research to why users came to dislike it. It treats the character as a case study in assistive interface design and in how a product becomes a cultural joke.

HN people submit it as the definitive history of Clippy, and cite it as a source for details like the Clippy song.

GUI historyDesign critique & analysis
#clippy#microsoftoffice#officeassistant#interfaceagents#softwarehistory

3 comments from Hacker News

d
@dannyow2020 · in “Clippy: The Unauthorized Biography”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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@acqq2019 · in “Clippy: The Unauthorized Biography [video]”
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c
@codeulike2023 · in “I created Clippy [video]”
When Office XP launched in about 2001 Microsoft had a comedy microsite all about Clippy being forced to retire (the angle being that XP was so easy to use he was no longer needed). It was entirely based around the idea that everyone was sick of clippy. They had a couple of flash animations (the contemporary equivalent of a viral video), recorded here for posterity. Clippy was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried Part 1: link Part 2: link Part 3: link Remains of microsite here: link There was also a downloadable blues-type song which was titled 'it looks like you're writing a letter', I can't find it anywhere now but it was pretty good edit: found the song! its at 1:01:35 in this video: ▶ this video
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