<
operating system> The appearance and function of a program's
user interface. The term is most often applied to
graphical user interfaces (GUI) but might also be used by
extension for a textual command language used to control a
program.
Look and
feel includes such things as the
icons used to
represent certain functions such as opening and closing files,
directories and
application programs and changing the size
and position of windows; conventions for the meaning of
different buttons on a
mouse and keys on the keyboard; and
the appearance and operation of menus.
A
user interface with a consistent
look and
feel is
considered by many to be an important factor in the ease of
use of a computer system. The success of the {Macintosh user
interface} was partly due to its consistency.
Because of the perceived importance of
look and
feel, there
have been several legal actions claiming breech of
copyright
on the
look and
feel of user interfaces, most notably by
Apple Computer against
Microsoft and
Hewlett-Packard (which Apple
lost) and, later, by
Xerox against
Apple Computer. Such legal
action attempts to force suppliers to make their interfaces
inconsistent with those of other vendors' products. This can
only be bad for users and the industry as a whole.
(1995-03-03)