A brief history of human-computer interaction technology

The now ubiquitous direct manipulation interface, where visible objects on the screen are directly manipulated with a pointing device, was first demonstrated by Ivan Sutherland in Sketchpad 47, the thesis of his doctoral dissertation in 1963. Sketchpad supported the manipulation of objects using a light pen, including grabbing objects, moving them, changing size, and using constraints. It contained the seeds of myriad important interface ideas.