Editing Zooming user interface (section)

{{Short description|Graphical interface allowing for image scaling}}
[[Image:ZUI example.png|thumb|300px|right|Example of a ZUI]]

In [[computing]], a '''zooming user interface''' or '''zoomable user interface''' ('''ZUI''', pronounced zoo-ee) is a type of [[graphical user interface|graphical user interface (GUI)]] where [[End-user (computer science)|users]] can change the scale of the [[viewport|viewed area]] in order to see more detail or less, and browse through different [[Electronic document|documents]]. Information elements appear directly on an infinite [[virtual desktop]] (usually created using [[vector graphics]]), instead of in windows. Users can [[Panning (camera)|pan]] across the virtual surface in two dimensions and [[Page zooming|zoom]] into objects of interest. For example, as you zoom into a text object it may be represented as a small dot, then a thumbnail of a page of text, then a full-sized page and finally a magnified view of the page.

ZUIs use zooming as the main metaphor for browsing through [[hyperlink]]ed or [[Multivariate statistics|multivariate]] information.
Objects present inside a zoomed page can in turn be zoomed themselves to reveal further detail, allowing for [[Recursion|recursive]] [[Nesting (computing)|nesting]] and an arbitrary level of zoom.

When the level of detail present in the resized object is changed to fit the relevant information into the current size, instead of being a proportional view of the whole object, it's called semantic zooming.<ref name="windows8">{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/09/hands-on-with-windows-8-a-pc-operating-system-for-the-tablet-age.ars|publisher=Ars Technica|author=Peter Bright|title=Hands-on with Windows 8: A PC operating system for the tablet age|date=13 September 2011 }}</ref>

Some consider the ZUI paradigm as a flexible and realistic successor to the traditional windowing GUI, being a [[Post-WIMP]] interface.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}