WIMP (computing)
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
In human–computer interaction, WIMP stands for "windows, icons, menus, pointer",[1][2][3] denoting a style of interaction using these elements of the user interface. It was coined by Merzouga Wilberts in 1980.[4] Other expansions are sometimes used, substituting "mouse" and "mice" or "pull-down menu" and "pointing", for menus and pointer, respectively.[5][6][7]
Though the term has fallen into disuse, some use it incorrectly as an approximate synonym for graphical user interface (GUI). Any interface that uses graphics can be called a GUI, and WIMP systems derive from such systems. However, while all WIMP systems use graphics as a key element (the icon and pointer elements), and therefore are GUIs, the reverse is not true. Some GUIs are not based in windows, icons, menus, and pointers. For example, most mobile phones represent actions as icons, and some may have menus, but very few include a pointer or run programs in a window.
WIMP interaction was developed at Xerox PARC (see Xerox Alto, developed in 1973) and popularized with Apple's introduction of the Macintosh in 1984, which added the concepts of the "menu bar" and extended window management.[8]
In a WIMP system:
- A window runs a self-contained program, isolated from other programs that (if in a multi-program operating system) run at the same time in other windows.
- An icon acts as a shortcut to an action the computer performs (e.g., execute a program or task).
- A menu is a text or icon-based selection system that selects and executes programs or tasks.
- The pointer is an onscreen symbol that represents movement of a physical device that the user controls to select icons, data elements, etc.
This style of system improves human–computer interaction (HCI) by emulating real-world interactions and providing better ease of use for non-technical people. Users can carry skill at a standardized interface from one application to another.
Due to the nature of the WIMP system, simple commands can be chained together to undertake a group of commands that would have taken several lines of command line instructions.
Criticism
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Some human–computer interaction researchers[9] consider WIMP to be ill-suited for multiple applications.
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Andries van Dam: Post-WIMP User Interfaces. In: Communications of the ACM, 40(2) (February 1997), pp. 63-67. Citeseer
- ↑ Past, Present and Future of User Interface Software Tools. Brad Myers, Scott E. Hudson, Randy Pausch, Y Pausch. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2000. [1]
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Alistair D. N. Edwards: The design of auditory interfaces for visually disabled users. In: Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 1988, pp. 83–88, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/57167.57180
- Mark Green, Robert Jacob, SIGGRAPH: '90 Workshop report: software architectures and metaphors for non-WIMP user interfaces. In: ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, 25(3) (July 1991), pp. 229–235, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/126640.126677
- Ashley George Taylor: WIMP Interfaces (winter 1997) http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_winter/Topics/dialog-wimp/
