Instead, it shifted upstream to lodge in some poor CIO's development budget. Eight years later, we see that many of our concerns were misplaced. GUIs worked fine in networks, processing power caught up with graphical demands, and developers didn't neglect programs of interest to business. If anything, however, we understated the cost implications. That's a bit of a paradox, as application costs generally go down over time.
Standards emerge, tools improve, and developers acquire experience.
And all of these things have happened with GUIs. Graphics tools are incomparably more powerful than 10 years ago, for instance. And GUI design has become much smarter. Instead, the Web appeared and lifted these expenses to whole new levels. Further, website GUIs need to work for a diverse and impatient population, provide orderly access to very large libraries of information and resources, and reflect changing fashions.