History Main / ViewerFriendlyInterface

* Most Linux desktop environments include (or provide support for) ''compositing window managers'' ('''Compiz''' might be the most common) that utilize the system's [=GPU=] to render windows, as well as apply complex special effects to them. Earlier versions used to have lots of obscuring or annoying effects only useful as a technology demonstration. Nowadays they are mostly used for subtle user-friendly effects (such as panning between multiple desktops, window previews and smoother animations). The technology was widely popularized when they became an integral part of the system instead of an add-on with Ubuntu's Unity (which originated as a Compiz addon) and KDE4's [=KWin=].
** Compiz can be useful and provide some good desktop management features (e.g. desktop walls, accessibility, reverse colors) when you disable the eye-candy or tone it down. Also, some features, like the cube, are cool/useful for demos/presentations.

* In the early days of Vista, people would buy Vista-equipped computers based ''entirely'' off a demonstration of the Windows Flip 3D feature.
** That's what it's there for. The fact that it is actually useful once you've trained yourself to use it is beside the point. And they're doing it again in Windows 7 with a new feature - Snap.
* Just about everyone who has something to say about [[AppleMacintosh Mac OS X]] has something to say about the Dock. And some would say that it falls into this trope.
** The Genie Effect when programs minimize. Any PC user gets annoyed right there.
** In Apple Mail, when you send a message, it goes ''*shwoosh*'' with a stereo pan. Because, you know, that message is ''in motion''. In later versions, the message window moves off the screen to the top.
* Another example is [[http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/ psdoom]], an old VideoGame/{{Doom}} mod that turns the processes into monsters that can be shot dead.
* This goes far beyond window managers and basic GUI implementation. Many if not most software applications for general, nontechnical users are designed with copious amounts of flashy bells and whistles that serve little to no actual function. This often sacrifices flexibility on the altar of simplicity. Users with more technical experience often find this annoying.
** Apple's entire design paradigm is based on this. Since the hardcore start digging (or messing with the firmware and hardware) for extra functions from the get go, Mac software and iProducts tend to offer only the most basic and intuitive options to a new user on startup unlike other devices that usually go through a lengthy customization phase.
** Apple's the freaking ''king'' of this trope. Only on a Mac will hardware errors display a single icon of a sad Classic Mac and two rows of numbers in extremely small print accompanied with a horrible sound (usually breaking glass, a car crash, or an ''explosion''), and system errors consist of a dialog box saying that something has gone wrong and need to restart and a restart button, with no other explanation about the error whatsoever.
* Most antivirus programs display on screen the name of the exact file they are scanning. You'll have about 1/20th of a second to read each one, but then you probably only care about (a) a rough idea of where it's up to (especially if it's going through directories in alphabetical order), and (b) any file it pauses on.
** Also, it's proof that it's actually working and making progress.

* DespicableMe plays with this. While the "[=CookieOS=]" that controls the cookie robots is fairly normal, it does mean that a completely functional GUI operating system was created specifically for the purpose of controlling one-time use cookie robots.

* Averted in an episode of ''LaFemmeNikita''. The screens have about the font size you'd expect on a real computer, so that things have to be shown in close-up, and the series's computer geek, as VoiceWithAnInternetConnection, first explains to Nikita how to find a process ID and then tells her to type in "kill -9" to make it stop--bog-standard UNIX.

** While the use of a VI to assist with starting a nuclear reaction is questionable, the ones on the Presidium are meant to be a ViewerFriendlyInterface since they are explicitly made for tourists.

* ''[[BridgetJones Bridget Jones's Diary]],'' featuring messages displayed one letter at a time. This is actually real, if outdated. You can still find programs that allow for realtime chat that show exactly what is typed, when it's typed, but your average person wouldn't use one.

* The G&G Network on ''{{Profit}}'' was designed with a punch-button interface (complete with a giant fake hand pressing the button on the screen), an organization system based on a slow-moving-but-cool-looking hallway theme, and only was able to depict people in cube-format... Still, it was cool how they exploded when people get fired.

* ''PersonOfInterest:'' in scenes showing the world from The Machine's point of view, there are lines of text and graphic boxes ColorCodedForYourConvenience. A real system wouldn't need visual displays like these, but they help the viewer understand what The Machine is "thinking."

* In the British miniseries ''The Last Enemy'' every computer reads every single word on the screen in a synthesised voice, ''even those the user typed in themselves''. Apparently TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture default computer settings assume impared vision and are very difficult to change.

* The movie ''Salt'' has a Nuclear Launch Sequence progress bar. It stops partway through for a 'reconfirm identity' check.

* The SGC dialing computer in ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' is remarkably flashy for something supposedly '[[MacGyvering [=MacGyvered=]]]' together by military scientists and technicians to interface with advanced and unknown technology. It's impossible to show on a still image, but the Stargate glyphs are animated, flying out of the picture of the top chevron and into their cells. That said, the Ancients seem to have been addicted to [[HolographicTerminal fancy holograms]], so maybe it's their influence seeping through.

** I think it's important to consider what such an interface is designed to do, as opposed to how it's specifically portrayed. Remember, often the LCARS interface is nothing more than a backlit design on plexiglass, as opposed to a real display/interface. If you consider that these displays would change their options based on which function one is performing, much like existing menu systems do today, it could be a fairly straight-forward design to use on a large-screen touch display. The "touch" thing is a big point as well, considering unlike traditional mouse pointer navigation, the design elements would have to be fairly large for usability reasons (much like iPhone/Android devices now). While such an odd layout doesn't appear on such devices, there are two things to keep in mind. First, such devices are more multi-app based, as opposed to a pre-set purpose (Helm control wouldn't have much of a need for "apps" - just features and options relating to the specific purpose). Second, even as tablets are becoming the new rage, very little thought has gone into developing an appropriate UI for that screen size. Instead, most just use the same layout as a device with a screen more than half its physical size. In the end, LCARS, if portrayed correctly, could be a very decent UI design - for specific-purpose complex systems. Not so much on personal computers or other "multi-task" systems.

* Early in the show, ''Castle'' would speculate about the cool TV-friendly software and equipment they were going to use, only to be disappointed by the mundane stuff actually used by the police. The police would then lampshade the trope and Castle falling for it.
** Later, Castle started playing the trope straight, showing computer forensics with Hollywood-friendly graphical interfaces.
** Even in the early seasons, whenever there's a Fed, Castle brought in the cool graphics and magitek.

** ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' uses an OS that ''looks'' like [=MovieOS=], but is based on Perceptive Pixel's actual multitouch system. Another episode subverts this with ProductPlacement for Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface tablet. Convently when the show started PixelSense was branded as Surface
** the current Hawaii 5-0 also is in on the CBS Microsoft partner ship so there command center has the PixelSense table and every computer is an pc with an white windows sticker or the Surface tablet and every phone is running windows Phone witch has an very Movie os like display and can be set to have the large font shown when the camera is pointed at it.

* ''{{Firefly}}'' averts this somewhat with ''Serenity's'' rather simplistic and basic user interface. On the other hand, the interface in Inara's shuttle and the various Alliance computers are much more complex and gimmicky.

** ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' uses an OS that ''looks'' like MovieOS, but is based on Perceptive Pixel's actual multitouch system. Another episode subverts this with ProductPlacement for Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface tablet. Convently when the show started PixelSense was branded as Surface

* The geek-oriented [[http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010111 User Friendly]] strip has an entire StoryArc focused around Miranda producing ''MovieOS'' that functions exactly like those described above, and then fails to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Among other things, it was designed to have all its security features disabled by typing "OVERRIDE".

* One of the reasons you so rarely see computers used in comic books is that it's virtually impossible to make the display look even half way decent. ''AllStarSuperman'' showed a monitor head-on once, displaying a word processor with letters that took up half the screen.

Often, a Viewer Friendly Interface is a front end for a MagicalDatabase, and often made of BeepingComputers with MagicFloppyDisk drives. For ScienceFiction, however, OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture.

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' frequently makes use of Angela's "mainframe", complete with MagicalDatabase and holographic display (despite all this modern technology, everything in it usually has a yellow tint), although we don't see the screen of the stylus-controlled tablet device she uses for input. The tablet's interface must be pretty viewer-friendly, because she can create entirely new simulations on the spot with a few strokes of the stylus.

* Just about everyone who has something to say about [[UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh Mac OS X]] has something to say about the Dock. And some would say that it falls into this trope.

* Just about everyone who has something to say about [[UsefulNotes/{{Macintosh}} Mac OS X]] has something to say about the Dock. And some would say that it falls into this trope.

* Just about everyone who has something to say about Mac OS X has something to say about the Dock. And some would say that it falls into this trope.

** In Apple Mail, when you send a message, it goes ''*shwoosh*'' with a stereo pan. Because, you know, that message is ''in motion''.

** Besides, the computers shown in the movie belong to the Macintosh Quadra series that didn't run Unix but Mac OS 7 and 8.

* MassEffect has Virtual Intelligences. They are advanced computers with a humanoid hologram instead of a screen and they can respond to and produce normal speech, sort of like IBM's Watson. They were likely added so players didn't have to do a whole bunch of reading when encountering a machine.

** ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' uses an OS that ''looks'' like MovieOS, but is based on Perceptive Pixel's actual multitouch system. Another episode subverts this with ProductPlacement for Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface tablet.

* Every operation for the computer brings up a titled progress bar. This bar will be enormous, color-coded, will obscure the entire screen, and will always say something like "Cracking Into Pentagon: 45% Complete." And, most unbelievably for anyone who has used a real computer, [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking this progress bar will be entirely accurate]].

* [[SarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane's]] computer, Mister Smith, is almost always displaying a fancy spinning pattern that does little of relevance. Since he's a sapient alien supercomputer with processing power to spare, it may just be due to his own enjoyment. He also plays a loud fanfare whenever he activates.

Can be TruthInTelevision, as programmers like you to know that [[TheCoconutEffect "Yes, the computer is working."]]

* In ''DeusExHumanRevolution'', hacking takes you directly to the email, which conveniently always only has 2-5 emails in the inbox for you to look at. The Tai Yong Medical area justifies this with TYM having an insanely strict email policy that limits all employees to 4 emails maximum (including the one telling them they're approaching capacity), which is simultaneously absurd while sounding exactly like something an efficiency-obsessed executive would come up with. This also helps explain why so much personal information is found on portable devices; people have to keep the excess mail ''somewhere''.

* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Kaiba goes to his HackerCave and uses a computer that follows almost all of the above rules to break into Pegasus's secret database (It does multitask, but then again the screen is 2 by 3 metres). Seeing as it?s also commenting on his mood, it might be more advanced than it looks like.
** "[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries My extremely advanced computer systems make Pegasus's security seem like a really boring video game!]]"

* ''Film/IronMan'' embraced this trope with enthusiasm, though to be fair, this ''is'' Tony Stark's home and company..when an 'outside' computer was used, it used a mostly text-based interface, and unwieldy keyboard commands. (F5 then "i"?)