Right now you are reading this node through the graphical user interface(
GUI) of your browser. It is often described as the look and feel of the computer. Many familiar
metaphors are used to describe the interface such as a desktop or seeing
applications through windows.
Invented by Xerox in the 70's, and later used by Apple for the Mac. Microsoft came out a couple of years later with many of the same ideas. Elements of the Graphical User Interface include:
pull-down menus
icons
scroll bars
mouse
windows
Before GUI, there was command-line interfaces like DOS. This interface forced users to remember commands and the responses were famously brief.
As technology advances, multimedia elements will be more common and virtual reality interfaces should appear.