# In the beginning


When I was a child, I had difficulty writing. I mean physically writing. My handwriting was terrible, and I went to PT and OT for years. Because of this, I had increased access to that wonderful new device, the personal computer.

At this time, my school did not have computers in the classroom, but it did have a computer lab.  My memories from this time are sketchy, but my earliest memories are of systems running DOS and using those systems for three things:

1. Playing  [SIM City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_%281989_video_game%29) 
1. Using the  [logo turtle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_%28programming_language%29) 
1. Writing essays in Microsoft Works or Word

It appears Logo may have been my first experience with coding, although I never thought of it this way until I saw it listed as a programming language recently.

More importantly to my story is the word processor.  I know that seems unlikely for a programming blog, but it leads to my first insight upon reflection.

When we got a computer at home, it was what my dad called a portable computer and looked something like this:


![A big box with a tiny monochrome screen](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1615566545547/PESgA8FmP.jpeg)

I learned DOS by experimentation, and one of the earliest things I discovered was  [QBasic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBasic). When I first opened it, I saw the user interface and said, "I know how to use this."


![QBasic opening screen](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1615566935944/5x0OW0nwR.png)

The menubar, scrollbars, and editor area had reminded me of the word processor I had spent so much time with.  Hence, my first lesson:

<div class="drs-note tldr">A consistent and common user interface is key. It can make users feel comfortable and make the software easier to use and learn.</div>

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