RISC OS takes an interesting approach to saving screen space. Instead of having a menu bar at the top of the screen or at the top of each window all options are available through pop-up menus that are accessible by clicking the middle (menu) button on the mouse.

RISC OS also supports smoothed (antialiased) fonts - even when the screen only has 16 colors.

RISC OS has an icon bar at the bottom of the screen that shows icons representing running programs, and icons for available drives. The Acorn logo on the right is used to access system functions through its pop-up menu.

The basic window management is a little different from other GUIs. The button with the squares in the upper left is a "back" button that moves the window behind other windows, but does not close it. The outlined X button closes the window, but not necessarily the application. The button in the upper right is a "toggle size" button and toggles between the maximum windows size (not necessarily the full screen) and the last size displayed.

The background area is called the "pinboard" and is used to "pin up" shortcuts to files, directories or applications by dragging and dropping items on the pinboard.

A popular program called Newlook improves the appearance of RICS OS 3 by creating a 3-d textured appearance in scroll bars, title bars and other common user interface controls. This is built in to newer verions of RISC OS.
 

RISC OS 3 being shut down.