Prehistory and evolution of the gui: From dotted text to super icons and more

I know it’s quite a pompous title, and I am surely lucky if this article manages to encompass half the premise. What I want is to give you a mayor overview through the history and concepts of the graphic user interface, something so ubiquitous its easy to ignore.

The first step in this journey my young padawans, is to set the record straight and define precisely what on earth are we going to talk about. Ever since the advent of computers and digital technology, inventors, scientists and programmers had to figure out a way to make possible the communication between machine and man. Interfaces were defined as means for doing just that. An interface is the compendium of tools and resources a system offers so the user can interact and control it.

When you need cash from an ATM, you can’t just stick your hand inside the safe and pull out a pack of bills. There has to be a way for you to communicate with that inhuman entity so it can understand your requirements and you can understand its answers; currently we have a touch screen interface where you input the data necessary for the transaction. In a near future we will just talk to the ATM machine, or put our eye in front of a laser for identification and just think of what we want. All those means of exchanging data comprise the interface.

From the first computers back in the mid 20th century, (sounds far away doesn’t it?) the main challenge has been to design the most fast and straightforward interface, a middle ground between power of control and a low learning curve. User interfaces come in various types, and their definition and usage is directly proportional to advances in technology. At first there were interfaces called CLI, or command line interfaces. In these interfaces, the user input of data relied strictly on lines of text.

Typical Command Line interface. Not a single icon at sight.

These interfaces lacked of icons and any graphical aid whatsoever. Input by user is typically lightning fast, since typing five characters takes only one second. Other advantage of the command line interface, is that you have at immediate disposal every possible combination between your keys. You have 100.000.000 of possible sequences with only five alphanumeric keys. Can you imagine a menu with more that twenty options? The only problem with command line interfaces or CLI’s is that the learning curve is too high because you have to memorize all the commands and their syntax. I think home computers wouldn't have popularized as fast as they did if they stuck with the CLI.

In 1960, a U.S.A scientist and inventor called Dr.Douglas Engelbart worked on alternative means of interaction between humans and machines, as part of the human augmentation project being carried by a U.S government agency called DARPA. The initials stand for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and their objective is to develop experimental technology for the military. It’s curious that almost all main inventions of mankind have came from warfare don’t you think?

Well, this guy Engelbart turned to be a legend, because he invented the modern mouse, an input device which upon we base interaction with all graphic user interfaces we know today.

This was the first mouse in history.

DARPA’s work lead to the advances achieved in the early 70’s by the XEROX palo alto research center (PARK) were they built the first computer with an graphic interface that featured drop down menus, icons and other graphic aids. With the XEROX Alto personal computer, the GUI was born. GUI stands for Graphical User Interface, and well, the definition is pretty straightforward. Any user interface that relies on graphical aids for interaction and exchange of data.

In 1979, the team from a then unknown company called Apple computer, lead by Steve Jobs and with involvement of ex XEROX and DARPA researchers, came out with the first commercially successful computer to use a GUI, the LISA. This first attempt at a general market graphical user interface was the first to use the desktop metaphor we are so familiar with now days. This concept has been practically untouched through almost forty years of software development.

Files looked like pieces of paper, directories like folders and you already could delete files by dragging them into the trashcan.

With the LISA, the WIMP interface was born. I’m not sure when was the word coined, but WIMP stands for Window, icon, mouse and pointing device. The development of this concept till this day couldn’t have been progressed without the voluntary and involuntary exchange of work between the guys at DARPA, XEROX PARC and APPLE.

Graphic interfaces have always evolved accordingly to graphic chipsets and processor technology. In the early days, with monochromatic displays and 2Mhz speed chips, operating systems had little support for anything beyond 80 columns of text. More advanced file managers arose with the advent of CGA and EGA displays, featuring cursors and primitive icon sets.

I have to confess that I did use this program. I’m THAT old! Does that mean that I’m an adult already? If I’m not mistaken, this was the last version of the Norton Midnight commander.

In the beginning of the computer industry, there were two operating systems available for the emerging Pc’s machines. One was CP/M and the other was the infamous D.O.S (disk operating system). The company responsible for the CP/M (control program for microcomputers) operating system, called Digital Research Inc, was also researching for ways to develop an alternative for the command line. Headed by founder Gary Kildall, they developed the Graphic Environment Manager, a visual add-on for those first OS. This extension was among the first to feature push buttons, menus and scrollbars and is well remembered for having such resemblances to the Apple desktop, that it ignited the first operating system copyright lawsuit in history, which forced G.E.M through a settlement to change some aspects of their interface. G.E.M had their moment of fame as the default GUI for Atari computers in the mid 80’s, but enclosed their market to that hardware platform and didn’t succeed to migrate it to the more popular D.O.S and Windows systems later on. That is why they faded along with ATARI in the early 90’s.

GEM 1.1 Looks familiar to you?

Like most GUIs of the day Amiga's Intuition followed Xerox and Apple, but a CLI was included which dramatically extended the functionality of the platform. Their CLI/Shell was not just a simple text based interface like in Microsoft’s DOS, but rather another graphic process .

Before the Windows era, there were many programs like Deluxe Paint and Adobe acrobat reader that used their own Graphical interface under DOS. Both these programs experimented with rudimentary tool bars and zoom options. Icons to this date were very elementary, devoid from all the information current OS’s can handle.

Deluxe paint was a real advance in the old days, as it was one of the first app to have its own interface outside DOS. It was developed by Electronic Arts (Yes, the game company) for Amiga commodore.

And then came Windows…

Microsoft Windows was meant as a GUI for D.O.S from the beginning. And it was a very unpopular one at versions 1 and 2. Computing until the 90’s is kind of hard to imagine for twenty first century users, as rules and concepts were completely different form tool to tool, and in between applications. For example, F1 was not the help key for all programs. the esc key was used in D.O.S to terminate a process, and in Wordperfect to repeat a character. In word you pressed esc to open the file menu.  Each individual app had its own interface to be learned and memorized. This landscape changed from 1998 when IBM advocated for the “Common user access” standard for interfaces and operating systems as part of their “Systems Application Architecture. “ You can purchase IBM’s first publication about Common user access here.

Microsoft Windows was clever enough to foresee the potential in such standard and harnessed it in their Windows 3.0, now legendary for being the one that paved the way for their global dominance. Windows 95 was their first attempt to unify the GUI and D.O.S as a whole Operating system, as well as their first full 32Bit OS.

In 1988, Apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement of the LISA and the Apple Macintosh GUI. (who would have thought!) The court case lasted with no conclusive verdict against Microsoft until 1997, when both parts apparently entered a private settlement.

Windows 1.0 1985

Windows 3.11 1992

Windows 95. 1995

Windows 98. 1998

The Mac

Apple’s Operating System hasn’t had such a steady and incremental growth as Microsoft Windows. Steve Jobs was kicked out from Apple in the mid 80’s (the reasons are another story all together) and so he began to develop a new project, one to create the best computer ever made, one with enough computing power to run complicated scientific simulations, and a price affordable to any student. His project was called NeXT, and obviously included its own Operating System the NeXTSTEP.

NeXT computers didn’t have the commercial appeal Jobs imagined, but their OS did have assets that would be the base of the software revolution of this century. Apple came to a financial dead end in the mid 90’s, with their board seeking desperately for changes. Life does have strange turns, and once again, the board of directors asked Jobs to come back to guide them. Under Steve’s leadership, Apple decided to port all their previous APIs to UNIX libraries, and to aid support for C, C++, Objective-C, Java, and Python.  All these changes made the new Operating System the new darling for programmers. The Mac OS has undoubtedly been the unavoidable reference for all operating systems of the XXI century. It introduced such design mainstays like the dock, the single system menu bar, and animations for “exposing” hidden windows. Also, their trademark “aqua” feel has been one of the most copied aesthetics in the software and hardware industry.

System 1. 1984

System 7.5. 1995

Mac OS 9. 1999

Mac OS X Leopard. 2006

OPENSTEP 4. 1996. One of the first object oriented multitasking operating systems, father of the now famous dock and opacity animations while dragging. Apple bought NEXT in 1996.

Power to the people! The LINUX OS

Linux is a generic name to denote the UNIX like operating systems based on the linux Kernel, developed by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds. What makes the Linux operative system different from the rest is that all of its underlying code is free to use, modify and redistribute. Linux development has an outstanding potential, and I personally think it will be the OS of the future. No software company team, regardless of budget, can beat the advances that an unlimited community of users  from all corners of the world can achieve. The concept behind this mayor open source project is really admirable and has changed forever the pace at which software evolves.

Linux is known for having a very modular architecture, particularly evident in the way users can interact with the OS. As all UNIX systems, it is principally designed with the power of the CLI in mind, but it encompasses also the ease of use of the GUI through many desktop environments with jaw dropping possibilities as 3D and borderless windows. Besides the desktop environments you have available, you can can have the maximal level of customization an Operating system can achieve with the the many window managers available.

Gnome 2.10. 2005

KDE 4.0. 2006

Enlightenment Window Manager

The WIMP interface, despite all its flaws in speed and versatility, had invaded the world by the mid 90’s being part of the digital revolution that has put a pc almost in every home in the world. Through all these transitions and experimentation in design, icons have taken a fundamental part in this evolution, and have been the showcase of what a GUI can do. You can easily notice the technological advancement GUI’s have overtaken since the 70’s by just comparing those early folder icons from the LISA with the 32bit, huge 512 pixels icons MAC OSX and Windows 7 use now days.

But the future is heading in ways we can’t even think of in our wildest dreams. The next generation of interfaces will be one that you can feel, one were the idea of a two dimensional space will be completely abolished for a more complex concept; interactivity with depth and no physical confinement into account. Microsoft and HP have began working down that path with something defined as NUI. (Natural user interfaces.) The HP TouchSmart used in conjunction with Windows 7 will be the first massive commercial application of this evolution of the user interface.

But to me, it seems that this is just a pale intro to the craziness that will come ahead. I think that at its present state, NUI does not offer a new user interface per se, rather a new way of inputting data to the same GUI we already know.

Much effort is put in researching for alternative ways to control interfaces, trying to take a step aside from the old mouse-cursor concept with such means as the Wii, The Eye Toy, or more recently, the outstanding project Natal.

Next in the evolutionary ladder we will see the interface that is not restricted to any surface  or space whatsoever. The truly invisible interface that would even be context independent. An interface with a learning curve almost immediate, because it will be a System embedded in our own bodies, being part of our humanity.

Hope this long story made short can fuel your curiosity for the evolution of user interfaces. I thought of making this post because UI’s are part of our everyday lives, and are kind of those things that we never spend any thought, and sometimes take for granted. Till next time!

Recommended reading:

NUI Group

Organic User Interfaces: Designing Computers in Any Way, Shape or Form

A talk given by William Gibson at the Directors Guild of America