Does a Graphical User Interface Really Makes Applications Easier to Use?

A graphical user interface or GUI is almost synonymous to user interface these days. When somebody talks about a user interface, such is almost always automatically presumed to be graphical.

Believe it or not, there was such a thing as command line or text-based interface before the advent of GUIs. That was the type of interface I was accustomed to while still in college. And believe it or not, some people do find them easier to use than graphical interfaces. This is specially true once you know the application’s commands and options.

I even remember the first time I had my own PC—it was a 486 IBM PS/Value Point. Windows 3.1 was hot during that time and came pre-installed in that PC. Since I was used to the empty black screen and blinking cursor of DOS at school, the array of graphical elements—icons, menus, windows, etc., in different colors—made me feel somewhat dizzy.

The first time I was greeted by the graphical Program Manager, I do not know what to do. Had it been DOS, I would have typed turbo or tp when I wanted to run the Turbo Pascal 7 IDE or typed clipper when I wanted to compile some Clipper source code. But with the Program Manager, I do not know what to type and where to type it—there’s no blinking cursor where I know the input should be entered. Then I learned that I have to use the thing beside the keyboard called a mouse.

Now, I am quite comfortable using the mouse for some pointing and clicking, and dragging and dropping. Maybe a little too comfortable that I am beginning to forget the esoteric things I used to do with the command line. But I still miss the speed and efficiency of using the keyboard instead of the mouse for some tasks.

If you are new to an application, I would heartily agree that a GUI would allow you to make use of its basic functionality more quickly. Once you see a scissor icon on a toolbar button, for instance, you immediately know that it has something to do with cutting an object which you have previously selected and storing it in the clipboard. Had that new application been text oriented, you might not know how to start or what command to use until you read the manual—you might not even know the command-line options and parameters to throw; but that’s what the /? and –h switches are for, right?

But once you are already familiar with the application and its features, sometimes the graphical interface gets in the way. I don’t know if you also feel that sometimes. If you do a Ctrl+C and a Ctrl+V instead of going to the menu bar, clicking edit, bringing the mouse down slightly, clicking copy, moving the mouse to the insertion point, going back to the menu bar to click edit again, dragging the mouse down again and finally clicking paste, you know what I mean.

GUIs are also helpful for applications you do not use frequently because you tend to forget most of their functions. Its nice to click a menu option and see a list of what you can do.

This could be the reason why editors like Vim and Emacs are still quite popular in this day of GUIs even if they rely more on user commands rather than point and click functionality. Users of these systems use them extensively (partly because you can use them with practically anything—text processing, source code editing, mail, as an HTML editor, etc.) and hence become very familiar with their commands to the point that it is much more quick and efficient for them to type the commands directly and that a GUI would only get in their way.