GUI as an adjective

I’m lucky to currently be working in an office with no other programmers and only graphic designers.

I’m used to working with other software developers, which I enjoy because we have a lot of crossover in our day-to-day work. But working with people outside my normal experience is really interesting.

One of the designers said something I’d probably never hear a programmer say. They used the word GUI as an adjective. Funnily enough, the subject was about a GUI for a web application, but their phrasing was something like ‘We need it to be really GUI’.

Programmers know GUI as a noun - a Graphical User Interface. A GUI is a thing with a specific form and purpose, it has properties and functions.

But to this designer, GUI was a description, a concept, a sense, an emotion. Imagine living in a GUI house, working in a GUI office, having GUI friends, making your meetings more GUI, living a GUI life. GUI as an adjective is really interesting. My interpretation of GUI as an adjective is synonymous with usable, simple, beautiful, intuitive, inspiring, enjoyable, emotional, practical, desirable. A lot of GUIs are not GUI. But the ones that are… we all know the difference.

Working with people who bring me into new language spaces is really interesting. I reckon a practice similar to artist-in-residence for programmers would be a very successful idea.