Of mice and menus: designing the user-friendly interface

The use of user-friendly interface design is reviewed, focusing on the four ingredients-mice, windows, icons, and menus-that are designed to be easy to grasp, simple to use, and straightforward to describe. (The mouse is a pointer. Windows divide up the screen. Icons symbolize application programs and data. Menus list choices of action.) Highlighted are sketchpad (1962), the first computer with a windowing interface; the development of the mouse; the bit-block transfer procedure, known as BitBlt, which made it easier to write programs to scroll a window, resize it, and drag a window (move it from one location to another on-screen); the evolution of menus; and the use of icons by the developers of Star. Lawsuits engendered by the widespread use of such interfaces are discussed.<>