User Interface - Graphical User Interface

A graphical user interface (GUI) (sometimes pronounced gooey) is a type of user interface item that allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment with images rather than text commands.

A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.

Examples: videogames, windows etc.

Advantages of GUI

- The user does not have to learn specific commands or have exact typing skills.
- A pure Graphical User Interface may not even need language, thus can be used by anyone e.g a service kiosk at an airport.

Disadvantages

- Needs a lot of RAM to run properly
- Takes up a large amount of hard disk space