Before I go into a rant, I will acknowledge that Apple did usability research with the introduction of both the Lisa and Macintosh, along with acknowledging tha

Before I go into a rant, I will acknowledge that Apple did usability research with the introduction of both the Lisa and Macintosh, along with acknowledging that most popular GUIs being based upon the foundations they laid. ... but ... It is important to remember that people were still figuring things out in the early days. There were many variations in how GUIs worked, some of which were minor and others of which were quite significant. None were predestined to be the final word in what constitutes a good GUI. In fact, one could argue that the Macintosh (and particularly the Macintosh of 1984) did not prevail. Far more people use Windows to this day, and most people will interact with touch interfaces more often than desktop interfaces. Those touch interfaces have ditched most of the traditional forms of interaction and the metaphors they are based upon. As for the interface as an IDE, I think a lot was lost when the developer tools were separated from the OS. That's not to say people should be required to use them, but the ability to probe more deeply and modify if desired is amazing. The presence of such tools doesn't have to take away from usability either. Just consider the developer tools found in most web browsers. Everyone has those tools (at least on desktop browsers), they don't take away from the UX either.