Clippy

The idea behind Clippy was to offer users immediate help with different projects. The concept of using an animated helper is something that was a persistent part of Microsoft’s strategy, although marketers found that many users did not want this kind of addition to the interface.

In terms of its development, the office assistant software behind Clippy used a series of Bayesian algorithms to determine what a user might need help with. The office assistant worked off of typing cues, somewhat like other additions to MS Word and MS Office such as autoformat, which has also been a controversial part of MS Office design.