Look and feel
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Template:Mergeinto The look and feel of a graphical user interface comprises its design aspects including colours, shapes, layout, typefaces, etc. (the "look"), and the behaviour of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes, and menus (the "feel"). It is used in reference to both software and websites.
Look and feel applies to other products as well as software GUIs. In documentation, it refers to the graphical layout (document size, color, font, etc.) and writing style of the material. In equipment, it means that the controls and displays are similar across a product line.
Look and feel serves two general purposes. First, it provides branding, helping to identify a set of products from one company. Second, it increases ease of use since users will become familiar with how one product functions (looks, reads, etc.) and can translate the experience to other products with the same look and feel. Some companies try to copyright their look and feel.
Apple Computer was notable for the use of the term in reference to their Mac OS operating system, trying, with some success, to block other software developers from creating software which had a similar "look and feel" to theirs. They argued that they had a copyright claim on the look and feel of their software, and even went so far as to take Microsoft to court, alleging that their Windows operating system was illegally copying their look and feel.
Despite arousing a large angry reaction from the software community, and causing Richard Stallman to form the League for Programming Freedom, the expected landmark ruling never happened, as most of the issues were resolved based on a license Apple had granted Microsoft for Windows 1.0. See: Apple v. Microsoft
The new version of Microsoft Windows, namely Windows Vista, uses transparency in ways similar to Apple's Mac OS X GUI, and contains features with almost identical icons, such as Spotlight and the magnifying glass icon. This has led to speculation that Apple may once again take Microsoft to court.
Guidelines
The look and feel of computer applications is usually specified through guidelines which define how something should be done on a certain computer system. But there's also a guideline which defines the look and feel in a cross-platform fashion, see a guide for well-designed cross-platform development wyoGuide.