Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Graphical user interface (GUI) has now become the de-facto standard for most of the software applications. Gone are the days of the crude character based interfaces of UNIX and DOS applications. Today’s software applications and products provide the users with intuitive, graphical and easy to use interfaces. Now the users do not have to remember the cryptic system commands or shortcut keys that were a must in the character based era. Now almost any task can be accomplished by a mouse click. For example, in a DOS environment, to copy a fie one needs to know the command for copying files, exact syntax and so on, whereas in Windows environment, you just have to drag the files you want to copy form the source to destination. Similarly, almost all the tasks could be performed by mouse clicks.

 

The user is presented with dialogue boxes and step-by-step instructions to perform the tasks without any problems, In fact, in many cases, the software guides the users using icons, dialogue boxes and other graphical elements so that even a novice can perform the task without any external assistance.

GUI is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with a computer and computer-controlled devices which employ graphical icons, visual indicators or special graphical elements called “widgets”, 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.

Graphical user interfaces, such as Microsoft windows and the one used by the Apple Macintosh, feature the following basic components:

1. POINTER: A symbol that appears on the display screen and that you move to select objects and commands. Usually, the pointer appears as a small angled arrow. Text-processing applications, however, use an I-beam pointer  that is shaped like a capital I.

2. POINTING DEVICE: A device, such as a mouse or trackball, that enables you to select objects on the display screen.

3. ICONS: Small pictures that represent commands, files, or windows. By moving the pointer to the icon and pressing a mouse button, you can execute a command or convert the icon into a window. You can also move the icons around the display screen as if they were real objects on your desk.

4. DESKTOP: The area on the display screen where icons are grouped is often referred to as the desktop because the icons are intended to represent real objects on a real desktop.

5. WINDOWS: You can divide the screen into different areas. In each window, you can run a different program or display a different file. You can move windows around the display screen, and change the shape and size at will.

6. MENUS: Most graphical user interfaces let you execute commands by selecting a choice from a menu.

The Microsoft Windows was developed by Microsoft Cooperation as a friendly user interface software to help the computer user work with ease on system.

Windows has a graphical user interface (GUI) in which the elements of your computer’s hardware and software are represented by visual pictures on your screen. For example, the recycle bin, a trash can icon with a recycle symbol painted on its side, represents the space on your computer hard drives where files remain after you delete them.

In addition to their visual components, graphical user interfaces also make it easier to move data from one application to another. A true GUI includes standard formats for representing text and graphics. Because the formats are well-defined, different programs that run under a common GUI can share data. This makes it possible, for example, to copy a graph created by a spreadsheet program into a document created by a word processor.

Many DOS programs include some features of GUI’s such as menus, but are not graphics based. Such interfaces are sometimes called graphical character-based user interfaces to distinguish them from true GUI’s.