A graphical user interface (GUI) is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with electronic devices like computers, hand-held devices (MP3 Players, Portable Media Players, Gaming devices), household appliances and office equipment. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.
An early-1990s style Unix desktop running the X Window System graphical user interfaceThe term GUI is historically restricted to the scope of two-dimensional display screens with display resolutions capable of describing generic information, in the tradition of the computer science research at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) (formerly Xerox PARC and still a subsidiary of Xerox).The term GUI earlier might have been applicable to other high-resolution types of interfaces that are non-generic, such as videogames, or not restricted to flat screens, like volumetric displays.