Visio Corporation

Visio Corporation existed from its founding in September 1990 until its merger with Microsoft in January 2000. The company developed and marketed graphics software products for Windows-based personal computers. Its goal was to produce graphics software that brought drawing capabilities to the mainstream personal computer user. Visio’s first product, Visio, was a drawing and diagramming program aimed at the general computer user who needed diagrams to accompany his or her text documents, but did not have the skills to produce them using the graphics programs of the day. The increasing use at that time of computers and printers capable of mixing text with high-quality graphics provided a market for a tool that allowed users to produce these graphics themselves, rather than relying on graphics specialists. To reach the mainstream market the company targeted, its products had to be genuinely easy to learn and use—as natural and intuitive as using a pencil and paper. Microsoft continues to develop and market Visio to this day.