The WIMP interface (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) may be nearing a mid-life crisis but not necessarily death. Not quite yet. Microsoft Windows 7 incorporates more support for multi-touch, leading reporters to project a big future for touch screens in the home or office. Time will tell. As mentioned in the quote below, “Some things” are better done with a keyboard and mouse.

Critics have suggested that office workers or home users would be reluctant to abandon their carefully honed typing skills in favour of poking and prodding their monitors.

John Curran, the head of Microsoft’s Windows group in Britain, acknowledged that “some things” would continue to lend themselves to keyboard and mouse, but said that “touch has some advantages in how you can design and manipulate something”.

If adopted widely, touchscreen PCs could go some way to replacing the mouse, which has been the dominant interface device since it was invented by Xerox researchers in the 1970s. Read more…