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Visual Interfaces

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 175 Accesses

Synonyms

Direct manipulation interfaces; Graphical user interfaces; GUIs

Definition

Visual interfaces are user interfaces that make extensive use of graphical objects (icons, diagrams, forms, etc.) that the user may directly manipulate on the screen through several kinds of pointing devices (including her/his fingers) and get an almost instantaneous feedback (near real-time interactivity). Information-intensive interfaces typically exploit one or more visual language, i.e., a language that systematically uses visual signs to convey a meaning in a formal way.

Historical Background

The importance of providing the user with an interactive environment where he/she could directly manipulate the computer content, and get an immediately graspable feedback out of his/her actions, was evident since the first demonstration of the Sketchpad system by Ivan Sutherland [1]. This system was the basis of his 1963 MIT Ph.D. thesis. Sketchpad supported manipulation of visual objects using a light pen,...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Sutherland IE. SketchPad: a man-machine graphical communication system. In: Proceedings of the AFIPS Spring Joint Computer Conference; 1963.

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  2. Kay A. Personal dynamic media. IEEE Comput. 1977;10(3):31–42.

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  3. Smith DC, Harslem E, et al. The star user interface: an overview. In: Proceedings of the 1982 National Computer Conference; 1982, p. 515–28.

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  6. Shneiderman B. Direct manipulation: a step beyond programming languages. IEEE Comput. 16(8):57–69.

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  7. Bertin J. Graphics and graphic information processing. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter; 1981.

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  8. Tufte ER. Envisioning information. Cheshire: Graphics Press; 1990.

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  9. Chang SK. Principles of pictorial information systems design. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall; 1989.

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  10. Catarci T, Dong XL, Halevy A, Poggi A. Personal information management, chap. In: Structure everything. Seattle: University of Washington Press; 2008.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale “A.Ruberti”, Sapienza – Università di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Tiziana Catarci

Authors
  1. Tiziana Catarci
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiziana Catarci .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Dept. di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale, Universita di Roma, Roma, 185, Italy

    Tiziana Catarci

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Catarci, T. (2018). Visual Interfaces. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_445

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