Today's GUI - The 'WIMP' Interface
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IBM

Abstract:

The user interfaces of today are dominated by the so-called WIMP UI - Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers. While there is no denying the success of these interfaces in bringing desktop computing to millions of users across the world, the GUI has grown to be a cluttered, discordant world of clashing icons and wasted screen space. In the WIMP world, objects (or more usually, applications) are presented in rectangular windows. They do not look real, or even bear more than an occasional passing resemblance to anything in our real world outside the computer. And amongst the visual noise and clutter, are hidden the clues necessary to make the cognitive leap to accommodate a metaphor which relies on the idea that 'windows' can exist on a 'desktop.' Objects and applications alike are represented by icons. But these icons only show a gross level of information - they indicate the class of object, but rarely impart status information or make important properties apparent.