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PUI redirects here. For the IATA airport code see Purnea Airport A graphical user interface (or GUI, often pronounced "gooey"), is a particular case of user interface for interacting with a computer which employs graphical images and widgets in addition to text to represent the information and actions available to the user. Usually the actions are performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements. History Precursors to GUIs The precursor to GUIs was invented by researchers at the Stanford Research Institute (led by Doug Engelbart). They developed use of text-based hyperlinks manipulated with a mouse for the On-Line System. The concept of hyperlinks was further refined and extended to graphics by researchers at Xerox PARC, who went beyond text-based hyperlinks and used GUIs as the primary interface for the Xerox Alto computer. Most modern general-purpose GUIs are derived from this system. For this reason some people call this class of interface a PARC User Interface (PUI) (note that PUI is also an acronym for perceptual user interface). PARC User Interface (PUI) The PUI consists of graphical widgets (often provided by widget toolkit libraries) such as windows, menus, radio buttons, check boxes and icons. PUIs employ a pointing device in addition to a keyboard. These aspects of PUIs can be emphasized by using the alternative acronym WIMP, which stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing device. Evolution of graphic user interfaces The GUI familiar to most of us today is either the Macintosh or the Windows operating systems. Their applications originated at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Laboratory in the late 1970s and were designed for Apple who used it in their first Macintosh computers. Later, Microsoft took aboard many of Apple's ideas in their first version of the Windows operating system for IBM-compatible PCs. Examples of systems that support GUIs
GUI design GUI design is an important adjunct to application programming. Its goal is to enhance the usability of the underlying logical design of a stored program. The visible graphical interface features of an application are sometimes referred to as "chrome". They include graphical elements (widgets) that may be used to interact with the program. Common widgets are: windows, buttons, menus, and scroll bars. Larger widgets, such as windows, usually provide a frame or container for the main presentation content such as a web page, email message or drawing. Smaller ones usually act as a user-input tool. The widgets of a well-designed system are functionally independent from and indirectly linked to program functionality, so the GUI can be easily customized, allowing the user to select or design a different skin at will. See Model-view-controller for more information. PUIs Rare kinds of GUI include PUIs are most notably found in computer games, and advanced GUIs based on virtual reality are now frequently found in research. Zooming user interface Many research groups in North America and Europe are currently working on the Zooming User Interface, or ZUI, which is a logical advancement on the GUI, blending some 3D movement with 2D or "2½D" vectorial objects. Some GUIs are designed for the rigorous requirements of vertical markets. These are known as "application specific GUIs." One example of such an application specific GUI is the now familiar touchscreen point of sale software found in restaurants worldwide and being introduced into self-service retail checkouts. First pioneered by Gene Mosher on the Atari ST computer in 1986, the application specific touchscreen GUI has spearheaded a worldwide revolution in the use of computers throughout the food and beverage industry and in general retail. Other examples of application specific touchscreen GUIs include the most recent automatic teller machines, airline self-ticketing, information kiosks and the monitor/control screens in embedded industrial applications which employ a real time operating system (RTOS). The latest cell phones and handheld game systems also employ application specific touchscreen GUIs. GUI vs. CLI GUIs were introduced in reaction to the steep learning curve of command line interfaces (CLI), text-based user interfaces requiring commands to be typed on the keyboard. Since the command words in CLIs are usually numerous and composable, very complicated operations can be invoked using a relatively short sequence of words and symbols. This leads to high levels of efficiency once the many commands are learned, but reaching this level can take some time, because the command words are not easily discoverable. WIMPs ("window, icon, menu, pointing device"), on the other hand, present the user with numerous widgets that represent and can trigger some of the system's available commands. WIMPs extensively use modes as the meaning of all keys and clicks on specific positions on the screen are redefined all the time. CLIs use modes only in the form of a current directory. Most modern operating systems provide both a GUI and some level of a CLI, although the GUIs usually receive more attention. The GUI is usually WIMP-based, although occasionally other metaphors surface, such as those used in Microsoft Bob, 3dwm or FSV. Applications may also provide both interfaces, and when they do the GUI is usually a WIMP wrapper around the CLI version. The latter used to be implemented first because it allowed the developers to focus exclusively on their product's functionality without bothering about interface details such as designing icons and placing buttons. GUI vs. TUI See main article: Text User Interface 3D user interfaces
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