The graphical user interface (GUI) revolutionized programming languages by allowing users to manipulate data and programs through icons and menus, without needing knowledge of the underlying language. The success of the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems popularized the GUI, but its origins can be traced back to Doug Engelbart’s work in the 1960s. A visually appealing GUI is important, but it must also be intuitive and efficiently designed for a program to be successful.
For many years, programming languages were driven solely by the command line. This limited users to people who had a working knowledge of the language so they could issue cryptic commands to manipulate data. A graphical user interface (GUI) is like a showcase for a programming language. Create a graphical representation of a desktop-style environment with icons and menus representing items and commands. The user can point and click to manipulate data and programs, never knowing the underlying language or a single command.
Anyone old enough in the 1980s to be aware of the information revolution no doubt remembers the success of the Apple® Macintosh® computer with its revolutionary graphical user interface and mouse. This was the first commercially successful and affordable computer that anyone could use, with no programming knowledge needed. Microsoft® quickly followed the Windows® operating system and no one looked back. The graphical user interface was not only efficient and easy, but fun as well.
While Apple and Microsoft brought the GUI into our homes, they weren’t responsible for inventing the first graphical user interface. Between 1965 and 1968 Doug Engelbart, then at the Stanford Research Institute, teamed up with some colleagues to create a window-style hypertext environment powered by the invention of a little three-button contraption that allowed a user to point and click click on objects in the window. The gizmo, with its button eyes, nose and electric “tail” resembled a mouse, and thus the device got its name. Engelbart’s inspiration for the GUI came in part from ideas proposed thirty years earlier by the famous American engineer, Vannevar Bush, in his 1945 published article on the “memex” system.
Xerox® Corporation developed two computers with a graphical user interface and mouse, modeled on the work of Engelbart. The contralto and the star; the latter released in 1981 to the public. The computer was expensive and the hardware inadequate for the needs of the operating system. Although it only sold around 25,000 units, it is thought to be at least partially responsible for inspiring Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) and Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) to push their development teams towards creating the Macintosh operating systems and windows.
Since the graphical user interface is the first thing a user sees when opening a program, designing a visually appealing interface can go a long way in building appeal for a program. However, the most important factor is whether the graphical interface is intuitive or not. Anyone with some experience using software should be able to locate basic functions in an unfamiliar program without consulting a manual, finding menus, tools, and options where appropriate. Advanced or proprietary features should be integrated in a way that makes sense to the user, so it’s no chore to remember how to access and use them. A flashy graphical interface will only require one program so far. If the graphical user interface is not intuitive and efficiently designed, the software is unlikely to become very popular.
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