Re-thinking the interface: What is the meaning of Alan Kay's"Doing with Images makes Symbols"

Alan Kay created a slogan for development of user interfaces: Doing with Images makes Symbols. This reveals the essence of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) which millions of people now use all over the world. This paper examines how GUI, based on Kay's slogan, has changed our communication with the computer. In order to explore this topic, I focus on Azuma and Turkle’s argument of "interface value" intuit for thinking about the relationship between our action and new sign surfaces. Next, Kay’s slogan is considered from the viewpoint of its formation process. Finally, I refer to Sperber and Wilson's Relevance theory. I conclude that GUI demands that we, along with computers, act for ostensive-inferential communication in a mutual cognitive environment.