Beyond the graphical user interface (abstract)

The wildly popular graphical user interfaces are a dramatic improvement over earlier interaction styles, but the next generation of user interfaces is already being fashioned. The future will be dynamic, spatial, gestural, colorful, ubiquitous, often auditory, and sometimes virtual. The dominance of visual information with hi-res images and full-motion video will push the hardware requirements, absorb network capacity, and challenge the algorithm designers. As human-computer interaction researchers accumulate experimental data and theory matures, novel input devices, information visualization displays, and interaction strategies will emerge.