Origins of Graphical User Interfaces
Do we really know the history of GUIs? Or do we just assume that the world began in the 70′s and 80′s with Xerox, Apple and Microsoft?
In the 1960′s, a PhD student named Ivan Sutherland created an early CAD-like, vector drawing software called Sketchpad. Recently John Nack posted a fantastic video of Sketchpad at work:
Of the many remarkable things about Sketchpad, one stands out: its interface already looks like the canvas-centric UIs familiar to anyone who’s used Illustrator, Photoshop or even MS paint. Amazingly advanced features such as master symbols and auto-correction of vector paths are already in place. And the style of interaction isn’t that different from an iPhone’s. The year is 1963.
Sketchpad was revolutionary, a totally inventive about human computer interaction. Or was it? Ivan Sutherland was inspired by a “As We May Think”, a visionary article written in the 1940′s by by Vannevar Bush – or, more specifically, by Bush’s imaginary invention Memex, a computer system able to deliver the entirety of human knowledge via a sort of.. um.. hyper-text. Sound familiar?
All this means that none of the fabulous technology we enjoy today is new or event recent. Vannevar Bush would not have been surprised to discover the internet or the fabulous gadgets that deliver it to us – in fact, he may well have been disappointed by the artifices of some of our interactions with these toys. I wonder, is Sutherland’s and Bush’s brand of visionary thinking still around today? Maybe I don’t read enough sci-fi – but do we still dream this big? Or are we just creating variations of 60 year old prophecies?