page_title: Natural user interface
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Natural user interface / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Evolution of the user interface Español: Evolución de la interfaz de usuario: CLI: Command-Line Interface o interfaz de línea de comandos. Codificada. Estricta. GUI: Graphical User Interface o interfaz gráfica de usuario. Metafórica. Exploratoria. NUI: Natural User Interface o interfaz natural de usuario. Directa. Intuitiva.
context_page_description: In computing, a natural user interface, or NUI, or natural interface is a user interface that is effectively invisible, and remains invisible as the user continuously learns increasingly complex interactions. The word natural is used because most computer interfaces use artificial control devices whose operation has to be learned.
  An NUI relies on a user being able to quickly transition from novice to expert. While the interface requires learning, that learning is eased through design which gives the user the feeling that they are instantly and continuously successful. Thus, "natural" refers to a goal in the user experience – that the interaction comes naturally, while interacting with the technology, rather than that the interface itself is natural. This is contrasted with the idea of an intuitive interface, referring to one that can be used without previous learning.
  Several design strategies have been proposed which have met this goal to varying degrees of success. One strategy is the use of a "reality user interface", also known as "reality-based interfaces" methods.
context_section_description: In the 1990s, Steve Mann developed a number of user-interface strategies using natural interaction with the real world as an alternative to a command-line interface (CLI) or graphical user interface (GUI). Mann referred to this work as "natural user interfaces", "Direct User Interfaces", and "metaphor-free computing".  Mann's EyeTap technology typically embodies an example of a natural user interface.   Mann's use of the word "Natural" refers to both action that comes naturally to human users, as well as the use of nature itself, i.e. physics (Natural Philosophy), and the natural environment.  A good example of an NUI in both these senses is the hydraulophone, especially when it is used as an input device, in which touching a natural element (water) becomes a way of inputting data.  More generally, a class of musical instruments called "physiphones", so-named from the Greek words "physika", "physikos" (nature) and "phone" (sound) have also been proposed as "Nature-based user interfaces".
  In 2006, Christian Moore established an open research community with the goal to expand discussion and development related to NUI technologies. In a 2008 conference presentation "Predicting the Past," August de los Reyes, a Principal User Experience Director of Surface Computing at Microsoft described the NUI as the next evolutionary phase following the shift from the CLI to the GUI. Of course, this too is an over-simplification, since NUIs necessarily include visual elements – and thus, graphical user interfaces. A more accurate description of this concept would be to describe it as a transition from WIMP to NUI.
  In the CLI, users had to learn an artificial means of input, the keyboard, and a series of codified inputs, that had a limited range of responses, where the syntax of those commands was strict.
  Then, when the mouse enabled the GUI, users could more easily learn the mouse movements and actions, and were able to explore the interface much more. The GUI relied on metaphors for interacting with on-screen content or objects. The 'desktop' and 'drag' for example, being metaphors for a visual interface that ultimately was translated back into the strict codified language of the computer.
  An example of the misunderstanding of the term NUI was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010. "Now a new wave of products is poised to bring natural user interfaces, as these methods of controlling electronics devices are called, to an even broader audience."
  In 2010, Microsoft's Bill Buxton reiterated the importance of the NUI within Microsoft Corporation with a video discussing technologies which could be used in creating a NUI, and its future potential.
  In 2010, Daniel Wigdor and Dennis Wixon provided an operationalization of building natural user interfaces in their book. In it, they carefully distinguish between natural user interfaces, the technologies used to achieve them, and reality-based UI.
caption: Evolution of user interfaces
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