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copied!<p>Technically, the interface you are looking for may be called <strong>Post-WIMP user interfaces</strong>, according to <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=253708" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a paper of the same name</a> by Andries van Dam. The reasons why we need other paradigms is that WIMP is not good enough, especially for some specific applications such as 3D model manipulation. </p> <p>To those who think that UI research builds only cool-looking but non-practical demos, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Firstmouseunderside.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the first mouse</a> was bulky and it took decades to be prevalent. Also Douglas Engelbart, the inventor, thought people would use both mouse and (a short form of) keyboard at the same time. This shows that even a pioneer of the field had a wrong vision about the future.</p> <p>Since we are still in WIMP era, there are diverse comments on how the future will be (and most of them must be wrong.) Please search for these keywords in Google for more details.</p> <ul> <li><p><strong>Programming by example/demonstration</strong><br> In short, in this paradigm, users show what they want to do and computer will learn new behaviors.</p></li> <li><p><strong>3D User Interfaces</strong><br> I guess everybody knows and has seen many examples of this interface before. Despite a lot of hot debates on its usefulness, a part of 3D interface ongoing research has been implemented into many leading operating systems. The state of the art could be <strong>BumpTop</strong>. See also: <strong>Zooming User Interfaces</strong></p></li> <li><p><strong>Pen-based/Sketch-based/Gesture-based Computing</strong><br> Though this interface may use the same hardware setup like WIMP but, instead of point-and-click, users command through strokes which are information-richer.</p></li> <li><p><strong>Direct-touch User Interface</strong><br> This is ike Microsoft's Surface or Apple's iPhone, but it doesn't have to be on tabletop. The interactive surface can be vertical, say wall, or not flat.</p></li> <li><p><strong>Tangible User Interface</strong> This has already been mentioned in another answer. This can work well with touch surface, a set of computer vision system, or augmented reality.</p></li> <li><p><strong>Voice User Interface</strong>, <strong>Mobile computing</strong>, <strong>Wearable Computers</strong>, <strong>Ubiquitous/Pervasive Computing</strong>, <strong>Human-Robot Interaction</strong>, etc.</p></li> </ul> <p>Further information: <a href="http://www.useit.com/papers/noncommand.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Noncommand User Interface</a> by Jakob Nielsen (1993) is another seminal paper on the topic.</p>

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