4COM0087 - Professional and Study Skills

Essay
GUI (Graphic User Interface)
A GUI is a graphical representation of the functions of a computer system or a
technological device. It incorporates the use of images and texts to enable the user easily
interact with the system. GUIs are mainly used in computer systems but are also used in
hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices,
household appliances and office equipments such as printers, faxes etc. Compared to
other applicable devices, GUIs used in computer systems best illustrates its structure and
outlook.
Before GUIs, users interacted with computer systems using text based hyperlinks (the OnLine system or NLS): invented by researchers at the Stanford Research Institute, led by
Douglas Engelbart(1), these hyperlinks where texts that enabled the user manipulate and
execute commands using a mouse, a keyboard and a Chord keyset. Using the On-Line
system at the time proved very difficult for the users as it relied on heavy use of program
modes/binary codes and most importantly it wasnt a point and click interface. This
problem then gave way to Xerox Alto computers, which where the first computers to use
the desktop metaphor and mouse-driven graphical user interface(2). Xerox Alto was
developed by a group of researchers at Xerox PARC in 1973(3) and revolutionized the way
users interacted with computer systems. PARC GUI was mainly made up of graphic
elements such as windows, menus, buttons, check boxes and icons. In addition to a
keyboard, it also employed a mouse, which was an actual point and click device compared
to that used on the NLS computer system.
Following Xerox PARC GUI

PARC GUI was also referred to as WIMP; an alternative acronym for windows, icons,
menus and pointing devices. WIMP itself was a word coined by Merzouga Wilberts in
1980(4) and it is often incorrectly used as an approximate synonym to GUI. This is simply
because WIMP emphasises on pointer element. For example, most mobile phones utilize
icons (graphics represents and results in an action being performed) and some may have
menus but very few include a pointer or run their utilities/programs in a window (5). In
other words, GUI as a term applies to any technological device with a software interface
but WIMP specifies GUIs with the key element, point and click.

It displayed a graphical representation of a desktop style environment with icons and

menus, representing objects and commands which the user could point and click on,
thereby manipulating data and programs on the system.

Henry Ubah

CSIT1

11380497

4COM0087 - Professional and Study Skills

Essay

without any knowledge of the underlying language or commands.

http://ergonomics.about.com/od/computingergonomics/qt/GUI_benefits.htm

Henry Ubah

CSIT1

11380497