GUI Gets a Makeover

GUI Gets a Makeover: "September 25, 2006 (Computerworld) -- The graphical user interface — keyboard, mouse, windowing system — has dominated personal computing for the past 20 years. GUIs today represent the culmination of innovative work at organizations ranging from Xerox PARC in the ’70s to Apple Computer Inc. in the ’80s. But it was Microsoft Corp. that popularized it for mainstream business computing in the ’90s. Today, Windows and the Office productivity suite have become the GUI standard-bearers for the business desktop.

With major revisions of both products ready to roll out, the enterprise desktop GUI is getting its first significant face-lift in years. Most of those changes, such as the Aero 3-D features in Windows Vista, are small steps forward. Others, such as Office 2007’s ribbon bar, represent a bigger leap — both for the GUI and for end users.

More changes lie ahead. The GUI will get better at simplifying user options by filtering them down based on social or operational contexts — or where a mobile computing device is being used, researchers say. Tomorrow’s GUIs will adapt to bigger screens and multiple displays by rearranging the desktop and relegating different content to primary and secondary displays. Larger display acreage could also push gesture-based input devices such as touch screens, digitizing pads and the stylus into the mainstream. "