Graphical user interface (GUI) << GOO ee >> is a way of interacting with a computer using pictures and other visual elements displayed on a computer screen. The pictures and buttons used to control World Book Online are an example of a GUI.
GUI’s simplify communicating with computers. Users can usually tell by the pictures how to get the computer to do what they want. Without a GUI, the computer screen is black, and the only way to tell the computer what to do is to type in commands. Users who do not know what commands to use must look up the commands in a manual.
Several elements make up a GUI. Small pictures called icons represent the actions available to the user. In most GUI’s, a mouse or other input device controls a pointer on the computer screen. Moving the pointer to an icon and pressing a button will produce the action represented by that icon. Some GUI’s employ an input device called a touch screen—a thin, transparent tablet placed over the computer screen. With a touch screen, the user can direct the action by touching one or more icons on the screen with a finger. See Computer (Input devices) .
Many GUI’s feature menus, lists of words that represent available actions. On many applications, for example, when users point to the File menu, they see a list of options including Save, Print, and Quit. Sometimes the same action will appear both on a menu and as an icon.
The first GUI was developed by Xerox Corporation in the late 1970’s. GUI’s soon contributed to the rise of the personal computer in the mid-1980’s. In 1983, Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.), introduced the Lisa, the first personal computer to include a GUI. The 1984 introduction of two GUI-based products—the affordable Macintosh personal computer by Apple and the Windows Operating System software by the Microsoft Corporation—helped popularize the personal computer among consumers. Because of their ease of use, GUI’s quickly became standard throughout the consumer computer industry. Today, most users encounter only GUI-based programs and never have to type in commands to control their computers.
