The Xerox Star was the first commercial computer to include the WIMP features (windows, icons, menus, pointer) that are now seen as the standard for graphical user interfaces. The developers took a principled approach to design, looking for common operations (such as selection, scrolling, copy, paste) between different applications. The core Star design was licenced by Apple, for use in the user interface Apple Lisa and later the first Apple Mac, and through that became the universal standard for how we view user interfaces.
Used in Chap. 4: page 59
Also known as: Xerox Star user interface
Links:
YouTube: Xerox Star User Interface: An overview- members.dcn.org: The Xerox "Star": A Retrospective (Johnson, J., Roberts, T.L., Verplank, W., Smith, D.C., Irby, C.H., Beard, M. and Mackey, K., IEEE Computer, September 1989, reprinted in . In Readings in Human–Computer Interaction. Morgan Kaufmann. 1995, pp.53-70)
ViewPoint screen image (from The Xerox "Star": A Retrospective, Johnson et al. 1989). Star's bitmapped display, once unique in the market place, is now much more common. Such a display permits WYSIWYG editing, display of proportionally-spaced fonts, integrated text and graphics, and graphical user interfaces.