A visual computer environment that represents programs, files, and options with graphical images, such as icons, menus, and dialog boxes, on the screen. The user can select and activate these options by pointing and clicking with a mouse or, often, with the keyboard. A particular item (such as a scroll bar) works the same way for the user in all applications, because the graphical user interface provides standard software routines to handle these elements and report the user’s actions (such as a mouse click on a particular icon or at a particular location in text, or a key press); applications call these routines with specific parameters rather than attempting to reproduce them from scratch. Acronym: GUI.
(GUI) or WIMP In computing, a type of user interface in which programs and files appear as icons (small pictures), user options are selected from pull-down menus, and data are displayed in windows (rectangular areas), which the operator can manipulate in various ways. The operator uses a pointing device, typically a mouse, to make selections and initiate actions.
The concept of the graphical user interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation in the 1970s, was popularized with the Apple Macintosh computers in the 1980s, and is now available on many types of computer—most notably as Windows, an operating system for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers developed by the software company Microsoft.
A user interface based on graphics (icons and pictures and menus) instead of text; uses a mouse as well as a keyboard as an input device; SYN. GUI.