Editing Icon (computing) (section)

=== The Desktop metaphor ===

A subgroup of the more visually rich icons is based on objects lifted from a 1970 physical office space and desktop environment. It includes the basic icons used for a file, file folder, trashcan, inbox, together with the spatial real estate of the screen, i.e. the electronic desktop. This model originally enabled users, familiar with common office practices and functions, to intuitively navigate the computer desktop and system.  (Desktop Metaphor, pg 2).  The icons stand for objects or functions accessible on the system and enable the user to do tasks common to an office space. These desktop computer icons developed over several decades; data files in the 1950s, the hierarchical storage system (i.e. the file folder and filing cabinet) in the 1960s, and finally the [[desktop metaphor]] itself (including the trashcan) in the 1970s.<ref name="Beyond the Desktop Metaphor">Victor Kaptelinin and Mary Czerwinski (2007).  "Introduction: The Desktop Metaphor and New Uses of Technology ", pg 2 ff. in "Beyond the Desktop Metaphor: Designing Integrated Digital Work Environments". MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.</ref>

[[David Canfield Smith|Dr. David Canfield Smith]] associated the term "icon" with computing in his landmark 1975 PhD thesis "Pygmalion: A Creative Programming Environment".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://worrydream.com/refs/Smith%20-%20Pygmalion.pdf|title=Pygmalion: A Creative Programming Environment|website=worrydream.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://scs.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9d5772a9-08ed-493a-a472-6d67cbd44dc0|title=Lecture 6 Guest Lecture (David Canfield Smith)|via=scs.hosted.panopto.com}}</ref> In his work, Dr. Smith envisioned a scenario in which "visual entities", called icons, could execute lines of programming code, and save the operation for later re-execution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://acypher.com/wwid/Chapters/01Pygmalion.html|title=Pygmalion|website=acypher.com}}</ref> Dr. Smith later served as one of the principal designers of the [[Xerox Star]], which became the first commercially available personal computing system based on the desktop metaphor when it was released in 1981. "The icons on [the desktop] are visible concrete embodiments of the corresponding physical objects."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://guidebookgallery.org/articles/designingthestaruserinterface|title=GUIdebook > Articles > "Designing the Star User Interface"|website=guidebookgallery.org}}</ref> The desktop and icons displayed in this first desktop model are easily recognizable by users several decades later, and display the main components of the desktop metaphor GUI.

This model of the desktop metaphor has been adopted by most personal computing systems in the last decades of the 20th century; it remains popular as a "simple intuitive navigation by single user on single system."<ref name="Beyond the Desktop Metaphor"/> It is only at the beginning of the 21st century that personal computing is evolving a new metaphor based on Internet connectivity and teams of users, [[cloud computing]].  In this new model, data and tools are no longer stored on the single system, instead they are stored someplace else, "in the cloud". The cloud metaphor is replacing the desktop model; it remains to be seen how many of the common desktop icons (file, file folder, trashcan, inbox, filing cabinet) find a place in this new metaphor.