What does GUI mean? We explain the term and its meaning

The early computer programs still relied on command line input. This required some expertise and was not very intuitive. With GUIs, this changed abruptly.

Revolutionary: a GUI is what makes software usable by everyone in the first place.

GUI stands for "Graphical User Interface". This means that you have interacted with a GUI countless times (even daily), even if you don't know the term at all.

What does GUI mean and why is it so important?

The simplest possible explanation of GUI could be as follows:

• Every IT-based program, be it video game, app or website, consists of its code at its core.
• The GUI transforms the code into a visible interface that users can use to take action. An example of this is the user interface of smartphones.
• A classic example with major consequences can be found in the world of operating systems: First, Microsoft developed MS-DOS, which, however, was difficult to use for non-experts, since every action required entering the correct code command.
• With Windows, an operating system with a graphical user interface (GUI) appeared later. Suddenly, users no longer had to enter commands to use a computer, but could intuitively follow the displayed options (such as clicking on "My Computer").
• Directly accompanied by the mouse as an input device - in DOS times, namely, only a keyboard was necessary.

How far-reaching this development step was ultimately, probably needs no further explanation. In the meantime, GUIs have long been a matter of course and are available practically everywhere; only through this could digital products finally conquer the mass market and initiate the greatest transformation in human history.