The kitchen interface—a lateral approach to GUI

Abstract

Current computer systems employing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) share an office-based series of metaphors. The reason for this may well be that computing, for many years the preserve of government and business, has naturally reflected their needs in its development history. When the time came to choose a graphical metaphor, it was perhaps inevitable that an office was selected.In recent years the advent of smaller, cheaper computers has brought a larger and more heterogeneous market. Not all potential users now possess the office experience upon which depends the 'desktop' metaphor developed by Xerox PARC, and exploited by Apple and others.We contend the time has come for another metaphor to be employed, this time drawing upon wider human experience.Virtually all potential users of a computer have at some time prepared food. We therefore suggest the design and implementation of a GUI we have called a Kitchen Interface ('KI'), which is described in this paper.