> We seem to have settled on the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) model, and there is very little real innovation in interface design anymore.
It's an interesting exercise to compare this to the mobile platforms, e.g. iOS. Windows are gone. Icons are here. Menus are changed. Pointer is changed too (your finger is pointer, not an abstract arrow).
Though on OS X desktop I don't see any innovations at all! May be I'm missing something? Windows, icons, menu, pointer, that's all. Probably gestures are an innovation, but it isn't used widely except in operating system windows manager and Safari. Can we think of a tabs as an innovation? I never really liked them, I believe that tabs could be replaced by better window management. It's something that tied to application now, but it should be tied to a window manager and probably in better ways.
Desktop user interface is definitely stagnating, if we're talking about OS X. I don't know much about new Windows releases, but in Windows 7 it was the same story.
It's an interesting exercise to compare this to the mobile platforms, e.g. iOS. Windows are gone. Icons are here. Menus are changed. Pointer is changed too (your finger is pointer, not an abstract arrow).
Though on OS X desktop I don't see any innovations at all! May be I'm missing something? Windows, icons, menu, pointer, that's all. Probably gestures are an innovation, but it isn't used widely except in operating system windows manager and Safari. Can we think of a tabs as an innovation? I never really liked them, I believe that tabs could be replaced by better window management. It's something that tied to application now, but it should be tied to a window manager and probably in better ways.
Desktop user interface is definitely stagnating, if we're talking about OS X. I don't know much about new Windows releases, but in Windows 7 it was the same story.