# RealThings

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{{Short description|Early skeuomorphic design for digital interfaces, developed by IBM}}
{{notability|software|date=October 2018}}

thumb|right|IBM RealPhone—an example of the RealThings design methodology

IBM '''RealThings''' is a design methodology for [software interfaces](/source/user_interface) proposed by IBM in 1998. It proposed that graphical user interfaces should be represented as [skeuomorphs](/source/Skeuomorph) (images of physical real-life objects) in order to be "natural and intuitive, allowing users to focus more on their tasks and less on computer artefacts".<ref>{{cite conference|last=Mullay|title=IBM RealThings|date=April 1998|book-title=CHI 98 conference summary on Human factors in computing systems|publisher=[ACM Press](/source/Association_for_Computing_Machinery)|doi=10.1145/286498.286505|isbn=1-58113-028-7|pages=13&ndash;14 }}</ref>

As a demonstration, IBM created interfaces for a [softphone](/source/softphone), a [media player](/source/Media_player_software) and an [e-reader application](/source/E-reader) titled "RealPhone," "RealCD" and "RealBook", respectively. No actual applications using the design language were released.

A lecturer at the [University of Liverpool](/source/University_of_Liverpool), Floriana Grasso, critiqued this design language for not clearly communicating software functions to the user. A telephone program, for example, forced users to make calls by pressing on a picture of a telephone handset, rather than providing an explicitly labeled button for this function.
.<ref name="Ruin"/>

==See also==
* [Microsoft Bob](/source/Microsoft_Bob)

==References==
<references>

<ref name="Ruin">{{cite web|url=http://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk/~floriana/COMP106/12ps.pdf|access-date=25 October 2018|title=Metaphor’s problems: IBM Real Things series|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830015037/http://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk/~floriana/COMP106/12ps.pdf|archive-date=30 August 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

</references>

Category:IBM software

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