Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Graphical User Interface shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Graphical User Interface offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Graphical User Interface at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Graphical User Interface? Wrong! If the Graphical User Interface is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Graphical User Interface then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Graphical User Interface? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Graphical User Interface and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Graphical User Interface wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Graphical User Interface then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Graphical User Interface site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Graphical User Interface, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Graphical User Interface, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
A
graphical user interface (
GUI) is a type of
user interface which allows people to
human-computer interaction and computer-controlled devices which employ graphical icons, visual indicators or special graphical elements called "widget (computing)s", along with text, labels or text navigation to represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through
direct manipulation of the graphical elements.
The term
GUI is historically restricted to the scope of flat screens with high resolution graphics capable of describing generic information, in the tradition of the research at
Palo Alto Research Center. The term does not apply to other high resolution
Human-Machine_Interface#Types that are non-generic, such as
videogames, or not restricted to flat screens, like Volumetric displays.
History
Precursors to graphical user interfaces
The precursor to graphical user interfaces was invented by researchers at the
Stanford Research Institute, led by Douglas Engelbart. They developed the use of text-based hyperlinks manipulated with a
Computer 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 a GUI as the primary interface for the Xerox Alto
computer. Most modern general-purpose GUIs are derived from this system. As a result, 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
The PARC User Interface consists of graphical widgets (often provided by
widget toolkit libraries) such as
window (computing)s, menu (computing)s,
radio button (computing)s,
check boxes and
icon (computing)s. The PARC User Interface employs a
pointing device in addition to a keyboard. These aspects can be emphasized by using the alternative acronym WIMP (computing), which stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and
Pointing device.
Evolution of graphic user interfaces
Following PARC the first commercially successful GUI-centric computer operating models were those of the Apple Lisa but more successfully that of Macintosh System graphical environment.The graphical user interfaces familiar to most people today are
Microsoft Windows,
Mac OS X, and the X Window System interfaces. IBM and
Microsoft used many of Apple's ideas to develop the Common User Access specifications that formed the basis of the user interface found in Microsoft Windows,
IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager, and the Unix Motif (widget toolkit) toolkit and
window manager. These ideas evolved to create the interface found in current versions of the Windows operating system, as well as in Mac OS X and various
desktop environments for Unix-like systems. Thus most current graphical user interfaces have largely common idioms.
Graphical user interface design
Graphical user interface design is an important adjunct to application programming. Its goal is to enhance the usability of the underlying logical design of a stored Computer program. The visible graphical interface features of an application are sometimes referred to as "chrome". They include graphical elements (Widget (computing)) 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 graphical user interface can be easily customized, allowing the user to select or design a different
skin (computing) at will. See
Model-view-controller for more information.
Zooming user interface
Many research groups in North America and Europe are currently working on the
Zooming User Interface (ZUI) which is a logical advancement on the graphical user interface, blending some
3D computer graphics movement with
2D computer graphics or "2.5D" vector objects.
Some graphical user interfaces are designed for the rigorous requirements of vertical markets. These are known as "application specific graphical user interfaces." Examples of application specific graphical user interfaces:
- Touchscreen point of sale software used by waitstaff in busy restaurants
- Self-service checkouts used in some retail stores..
- ATMs
- Airline self-ticketing and check-in
- Information kiosks in public spaces like train stations and museums
- 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 graphical user interfaces.
Cars have graphical user interfaces in them. For example, GPS navagation, touch screen multimedia centers, and even on dashboards of the newer cars.
Graphical user interfaces compared to command line interfaces
Graphical user interfaces were introduced in reaction to the steep learning curve of command line interfaces (
Command line interface), which require commands to be typed on the Computer keyboard. Since the commands available in command line interfaces can be numerous, complicated operations can be completed using a short sequence of words and symbols. This allows for greater efficiency and productivity once many commands are learned, but reaching this level takes some time because the command words are not easily discoverable.
WIMP (computing)s ("window, icon, menu, pointing device"), on the other hand, present the user with numerous widget (computing)s that represent and can trigger some of the system's available commands.
WIMPs extensively use
Mode (computer interface) as the meaning of all keys and clicks on specific positions on the screen are redefined all the time.
Command line interfaces use modes only in the form of a current directory.
Most modern operating systems provide both a graphical user interface and some level of a CLI, although the graphical user interfaces usually receive more attention. The graphical user interface is usually WIMP (computing)-based, although occasionally other metaphors surface, such as those used in
Microsoft Bob,
3dwm or
File System Visualizer (FSV).
Applications may also provide both interfaces, and when they do the graphical user interface is usually a
WIMP (computing) wrapper around the command-line version. This is especially common with applications designed for Unix-like operating systems. 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. Designing programs this way also allows users to run the program non-interactively, such as in a
shell script.
Graphical user interfaces compared to text user interfaces
Three-dimensional user interfaces
For typical computer displays,
three-dimensional is a misnomer—their displays are two-dimensional. Three-dimensional images are projected on them in two dimensions. Since this technique has been in use for many years, the recent use of the term three-dimensional must be considered a declaration by equipment marketers that the speed of three dimension to two dimension projection is adequate to use in standard graphical user interfaces.
on Ubuntu Linux
Three-dimensional graphical user interfaces are common in science fiction literature and movies, such as in
Jurassic Park (film), which features
Silicon Graphics' three-dimensional file manager, "File system navigator", an actual file manager that never got much widespread use as the user interface for a Unix computer.
In science fiction, three-dimensional user interfaces are often immersible environments like William Gibson's
Cyberspace or Neal Stephenson's
Metaverse. Three-dimensional graphics are currently mostly used in computer games, art and
computer-aided design (CAD). There have been several attempts at making three-dimensional desktop environments like Sun's Project Looking Glass or SphereXP from Sphere Inc. A three-dimensional computing environment could possibly be used for collaborative work. For example, scientists could study three-dimensional models of
molecules in a virtual reality environment, or engineers could work on assembling a three-dimensional model of an airplane. This is a goal of the
Croquet project and Project Looking Glass by Java. Project Looking Glass
The use of three-dimensional graphics has become increasingly common in mainstream operating systems, but mainly been confined to creating attractive interfaces—
eye candy—rather than for functional purposes only possible using three dimensions. For example, user switching is represented by rotating a cube whose faces are each user's workspace, and window management is represented in the form of
Exposé (Mac OS X) on Mac OS X, or via a Rolodex-style flipping mechanism in
Windows Vista. In both cases, the operating system transforms windows on-the-fly while continuing to update the content of those windows.
Interfaces for the
X Window System have also implemented advanced three-dimensional user interfaces through
Compositing window manager such as Beryl (window manager) and
Compiz using the
AIGLX or XGL architectures, allowing for the usage of OpenGL to animate the user's interactions with the desktop.
Another branch in the three-dimensional desktop environment is the three-dimensional graphical user interfaces that take the desktop metaphor a step further, like the
BumpTop, where a user can manipulate documents and windows as if they were "real world" documents, with realistic movement and physics. With the current pace on three-dimensional and related hardware evolution, projects such these may reach an operational level soon.
See also
References
External links
- Graphical User Interface Gallery, screenshots of various Graphical User Interfaces
- Marcin Wichary's GUIdebook, Graphical User Interface gallery: over 5500 screenshots of GUI, application and icon history
- The Real History of the GUI, a very interesting article by Mike Tuck
- A History of the GUI, by Jeremy Reimer of Ars Technica
- Graphical user interface, article at Encyclopædia Britannica
A
graphical user interface (
GUI) is a type of
user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction and computer-controlled devices which employ graphical icons, visual indicators or special graphical elements called "
widget (computing)s", along with text, labels or text navigation to represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.
The term
GUI is historically restricted to the scope of flat screens with high resolution graphics capable of describing generic information, in the tradition of the research at
Palo Alto Research Center. The term does not apply to other high resolution Human-Machine_Interface#Types that are non-generic, such as
videogames, or not restricted to flat screens, like
Volumetric displays.
History
Precursors to graphical user interfaces
The precursor to graphical user interfaces was invented by researchers at the
Stanford Research Institute, led by
Douglas Engelbart. They developed the use of text-based
hyperlinks manipulated with a Computer 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 a GUI as the primary interface for the
Xerox Alto computer. Most modern general-purpose GUIs are derived from this system. As a result, 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
The PARC User Interface consists of graphical widgets (often provided by widget toolkit libraries) such as
window (computing)s,
menu (computing)s,
radio button (computing)s, check boxes and
icon (computing)s. The PARC User Interface employs a
pointing device in addition to a keyboard. These aspects can be emphasized by using the alternative acronym
WIMP (computing), which stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and
Pointing device.
Evolution of graphic user interfaces
Following PARC the first commercially successful GUI-centric computer operating models were those of the Apple Lisa but more successfully that of Macintosh System graphical environment.The graphical user interfaces familiar to most people today are Microsoft Windows,
Mac OS X, and the X Window System interfaces. IBM and
Microsoft used many of Apple's ideas to develop the
Common User Access specifications that formed the basis of the user interface found in
Microsoft Windows,
IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager, and the
Unix Motif (widget toolkit) toolkit and window manager. These ideas evolved to create the interface found in current versions of the Windows operating system, as well as in Mac OS X and various
desktop environments for Unix-like systems. Thus most current graphical user interfaces have largely common idioms.
Graphical user interface design
Graphical user interface design is an important adjunct to application programming. Its goal is to enhance the usability of the underlying logical design of a stored Computer program. The visible graphical interface features of an application are sometimes referred to as "chrome". They include graphical elements (
Widget (computing)) 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 graphical user interface can be easily customized, allowing the user to select or design a different
skin (computing) at will. See
Model-view-controller for more information.
Zooming user interface
Many research groups in North America and Europe are currently working on the Zooming User Interface (ZUI) which is a logical advancement on the graphical user interface, blending some
3D computer graphics movement with
2D computer graphics or "2.5D" vector objects.
Some graphical user interfaces are designed for the rigorous requirements of
vertical markets. These are known as "application specific graphical user interfaces." Examples of application specific graphical user interfaces:
- Touchscreen point of sale software used by waitstaff in busy restaurants
- Self-service checkouts used in some retail stores..
- ATMs
- Airline self-ticketing and check-in
- Information kiosks in public spaces like train stations and museums
- 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 graphical user interfaces.
Cars have graphical user interfaces in them. For example, GPS navagation, touch screen multimedia centers, and even on dashboards of the newer cars.
Graphical user interfaces compared to command line interfaces
Graphical user interfaces were introduced in reaction to the steep learning curve of command line interfaces (Command line interface), which require commands to be typed on the Computer keyboard. Since the commands available in command line interfaces can be numerous, complicated operations can be completed using a short sequence of words and symbols. This allows for greater efficiency and productivity once many commands are learned, but reaching this level takes some time because the command words are not easily discoverable. WIMP (computing)s ("window, icon, menu, pointing device"), on the other hand, present the user with numerous
widget (computing)s that represent and can trigger some of the system's available commands.
WIMPs extensively use Mode (computer interface) as the meaning of all keys and clicks on specific positions on the screen are redefined all the time. Command line interfaces use modes only in the form of a current directory.
Most modern
operating systems provide both a graphical user interface and some level of a CLI, although the graphical user interfaces usually receive more attention. The graphical user interface is usually
WIMP (computing)-based, although occasionally other metaphors surface, such as those used in
Microsoft Bob, 3dwm or
File System Visualizer (FSV).
Applications may also provide both interfaces, and when they do the graphical user interface is usually a
WIMP (computing) wrapper around the command-line version. This is especially common with applications designed for
Unix-like operating systems. 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. Designing programs this way also allows users to run the program non-interactively, such as in a shell script.
Graphical user interfaces compared to text user interfaces
Three-dimensional user interfaces
For typical computer displays,
three-dimensional is a misnomer—their displays are two-dimensional. Three-dimensional images are projected on them in two dimensions. Since this technique has been in use for many years, the recent use of the term three-dimensional must be considered a declaration by equipment marketers that the speed of three dimension to two dimension projection is adequate to use in standard graphical user interfaces.
on Ubuntu Linux
Three-dimensional graphical user interfaces are common in science fiction literature and movies, such as in
Jurassic Park (film), which features Silicon Graphics' three-dimensional file manager, "File system navigator", an actual file manager that never got much widespread use as the user interface for a Unix computer.
In science fiction, three-dimensional user interfaces are often immersible environments like William Gibson's
Cyberspace or Neal Stephenson's Metaverse. Three-dimensional graphics are currently mostly used in computer games, art and computer-aided design (CAD). There have been several attempts at making three-dimensional desktop environments like Sun's Project Looking Glass or SphereXP from Sphere Inc. A three-dimensional computing environment could possibly be used for collaborative work. For example, scientists could study three-dimensional models of molecules in a virtual reality environment, or engineers could work on assembling a three-dimensional model of an airplane. This is a goal of the
Croquet project and Project Looking Glass by Java. Project Looking Glass
The use of three-dimensional graphics has become increasingly common in mainstream operating systems, but mainly been confined to creating attractive interfaces—
eye candy—rather than for functional purposes only possible using three dimensions. For example, user switching is represented by rotating a cube whose faces are each user's workspace, and window management is represented in the form of Exposé (Mac OS X) on Mac OS X, or via a
Rolodex-style flipping mechanism in
Windows Vista. In both cases, the operating system transforms windows on-the-fly while continuing to update the content of those windows.
Interfaces for the X Window System have also implemented advanced three-dimensional user interfaces through Compositing window manager such as Beryl (window manager) and Compiz using the
AIGLX or
XGL architectures, allowing for the usage of OpenGL to animate the user's interactions with the desktop.
Another branch in the three-dimensional desktop environment is the three-dimensional graphical user interfaces that take the desktop metaphor a step further, like the BumpTop, where a user can manipulate documents and windows as if they were "real world" documents, with realistic movement and physics. With the current pace on three-dimensional and related hardware evolution, projects such these may reach an operational level soon.
See also
References
External links
- Graphical User Interface Gallery, screenshots of various Graphical User Interfaces
- Marcin Wichary's GUIdebook, Graphical User Interface gallery: over 5500 screenshots of GUI, application and icon history
- The Real History of the GUI, a very interesting article by Mike Tuck
- A History of the GUI, by Jeremy Reimer of Ars Technica
- Graphical user interface, article at Encyclopædia Britannica
Graphical User Interface from FOLDOC
Graphical User Interface < operating system > (GUI) The use of pictures rather than just words to represent the input and output of a program. A program with a GUI runs under some ...
Platform Independent Graphical User Interface from FOLDOC
PIGUI ==> Platform Independent Graphical User Interface (PIGUI) The PIGUI FAQ. [Summary?] (1994-11-22) Try this search on Wikipedia, OneLook, Google
Graphical user interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A graphical user interface (GUI) (IPA: /ˈguːiː/) is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with electronic devices like computers, hand-held devices (MP3 ...
Dictionary of Computers - graphical user interface
Skip to page content | Tiscali Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main ...
AskOxford: graphical user interface
graphical user interface • noun Computing a visual way of interacting with a computer using items such as windows and icons. Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English ...
graphical user interface - Guy Carberry
All about my work for the OU. ... Back on board after six months doing other things. Since I passed over my design comps the developers have been hard at work coding it up into an ...
What is graphical user interface? - A Word Definition From the ...
This page describes the term graphical user interface and lists other pages on the Web where you can find additional information.
Graphical User Interface Gallery
On these pages you will find many screen shots of various desktop computer Graphical User Interfaces and operating systems. Many different people have had different ideas of how a ...
Graphical User Interface
The Free Online Dictionary of Computing (http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/) is edited by Denis Howe < dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk >. Previous: Graphical Kernel System Next: Graphic Display ...
WinSCP :: User Interfaces
WinSCP offers two program interfaces, each with extensive configuration options.
