What is a GUI?
A graphical user interface is visual the way a computer (or any computing device) communicates with a person. It generally consists of the layout and design of what appears on the screen of a computing device to give a person (the user) a way to use the computing device. Let's discuss why it's called a user interface.
The User and the Interface
The visual layout can include any combination of text, numbers, symbols, or other graphics to help guide the user while they use the computer. In this case a computer can be any type of computing device with some kind of visual display. It's what appears on the screen that's makes up a user interface, and the type of computing device doesn't really matter.
Computers include connections both inside and outside which allow the computer hardware to connect to other types of electronics. A common example is when you use a cable with a connector to connect a computer, tablet, or smartphone to something else. The connection is sometimes referred to as an "interface" which is a computer term that describes a connection between two different things. The term "user interface" describes a way for a computer or computing device to connect to a person, which is something different from a computer.
If you drive a car you're familiar with another type of user interface, the driver controls. The gas pedal, speedometer, and brake are all part of a car's user interface since they are used by the driver to control the car. The user interface of a car is pretty common, and when the dial starts to move on the speedometer you probably know you're going faster.
To control your speed you use the gas pedal and brake, and the dial on the speedometer gives you feedback on your action. This is a pretty good user interface since it's simple and you can probably recognize a gas pedal, brake, and speedometer on almost any car you might drive.
GUI Design
Computer monitors and touchscreen displays can display almost anything that our eyes can see and can change what appears on the display. This makes them very flexible and allows a computer to perform many different functions. But someone had to figure out what to put on the screen for you to use the computer.
People that design computers and devices have at their disposal what is essentially a blank sheet of paper when they create a user interface. Whether it's the text on a web page, the design of button on a touchscreen, or a symbol on a desktop computer, someone created the design and layout of what appears on the screen. All of these design decisions create a visual display that you can use to perform tasks on your device. GUI designers have a lot of options available to create what you see on the display and these are very important decisions.
People can read text, but a long explanation can take a while to read, so symbols are used. We like signs and directions that are easy to follow. As a result, GUI's often include visual symbols, called icons, that provide a symbolic way for a person to perform a function or use a feature. They're like the traffic sign symbols for the world of computers. A driving test to obtain a license often includes a question or two that displays a traffic sign and a multiple choice answer. Hopefully, not too many people get the stop sign wrong.
In GUI's, icons and symbols can help make it easier to recognize common functions. For example, in Windows it's common for a user to click on the X in a window to close a program. Touchscreen users tap on an app icon to start an app, and Mac OSX users are familiar with the red, yellow, an green buttons that are used to manage a window on the desktop.
Good GUI and Bad GUI
The user interface is an important part of the design of any software program and application because how easy it is to understand can have a major impact on the success of the program. In fact, you're a GUI expert. If a GUI is easy to use, it's good, if it's hard to use, it's bad. GUI's are supposed to do one thing, help the user. Good GUI's do this by being simple and consistent.
Simple means is using a symbol or word that is easy to understand by the user, and consistent makes it easy to find that word or symbol used the same way and in the same location on almost any screen. We don't like our GUI's to change since it can be disorienting when familiar things are moved.
When GUI's Change
As people get used to using one user interface for a computer, program, or application they become comfortable with knowing where things are located on the screen and what they mean. Anyone who switched from the menu's in Microsoft's Word 2003 to the Ribbon GUI in Word 2007 or later knows that it takes time to learn a new GUI. Another example of this is switching from an older version of Microsoft's Windows operating system to the new Windows 8.
The user interface for Windows 8 is designed to be used with objects on the screen called tiles which are square and rectangular. Windows 8 is also designed to be used with a touchscreen more than with a mouse. As a result, some people find the change to Windows 8 to be a challenge. It's because they have to learn a new GUI.
I had a friend who posted on Facebook about their frustration with a new Apple Mac laptop computer. Their previous computer was a Windows 7 laptop. While all their friends told her that Mac's were easy to use, my friend is a little frustrated while she learns the new GUI on a the Mac since some common symbols and icons on Windows 7 are different in location and appearance on a Mac.
New Technology Means New GUI's
Since computers have new features and functions that may not be commonplace in other forms of technology, you are likely to see new symbols, words, and graphics that may not always make sense. If there isn't anything that's commonly used to represent a task of function, then the GUI designer has to come up with something that will work for the users. They do test them out, really!
It's like learning a new language, with symbols that represent words or phrases. Only the symbols represent functions and features that may be just as new to you as the symbol itself.
Don't worry though, if you can learn a few things at a time you can become familiar with any GUI and learn how to use them. One thing I see in my classes is that people forget that any new technology is new, and it might take some practice to lean how to use it. Think about when you learned to drive a car. Was learning how the gas pedal and brake worked something that you were able to do the first time you got in the driver's seat? Maybe not, so give yourself a break on how much you can learn in a day with technology.