Kent Sullivan and Derek Hoiem were some of the original hires at the User Research Labs at Microsoft. The worked on the exploratory user research that produced the taskbar and Start menu, as well as the iterative research that helped nail down the details. How did the Start Menu and Start Button come to be?

https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/11/10923808/microsoft-windows-start-menu-20-years-visual-history
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/localizability/mirroring-awareness
http://becuriouswith.us/
https://measuringu.com/usability-history/