The best book I've ever read on the topic was the classic Mac OS Human Interface Guidelines. I still recommend them even though some of the specifics are out-of-date.
I adore Tog on Interface by Bruce Tognazzini, who led the earliest editions of Apple's HIG. He explores ideas that have been lost to time, like tailoring an interface to a user's personality.
As they should. There are fundamental differences in hardware and capability between 1992 and 2026.
The most immediate are pull-down menus at the top of the screen. They work good on a 9 inch screen, they are awful with 27 inch displays.
Another related change are modal dialog boxes. When you have a 9 inch screen you're fundamentally looking at one document in one app at a time. When you got 2 27's that's not true anymore.
You don't have it "now" unless you didn't upgrade to 26.3.
But yes. The only way you can resize windows through System 7 is the resize widget. You cannot grab anywhere else and drag. They couldn't afford the extra chrome pixels, again, on a 512 x 342 screen.
It's still a "known issue" in 26.3
(Though I haven't upgraded to Tahoe at all yet so maybe the release notes are wrong? But everything I've read indicates apple said they fixed it then changed to say they didn't.)
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-note...
There was a study which menus work better, on a screen edge or context menus that appear right under a mouse pointer. One might think that the second kind would win, because they are so close. No, the first kind was faster. Apparently the stability and the fixed location also play a role. People basically just use them almost without looking, while context menus always require a conscious choice.
It's on my list as well. I really appreciate the MacOS handles progressive disclosure, something most environments either get wrong or misunderstand (caugh caugh GNOME caugh caugh)
ETA: One thing I forgot to mention is how playful MacOS was (and to an extent still is). They recognised that the easiest way to learn something is by messing with it and seeing what happens. It also caused it to be very approachable through what I like to call 'professional unprofessionalism'. It wasn't afraid to use silly metaphors or graphics to get a point across without crossing the line into seeming out of place in a work environment or feeling infantilising
https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Designing-Interactions-Press-Bil...