One class of appliance-like objects are peripheral devices, including telephones, fax machines, printers, and scanners. By providing a consistent look and feel, these objects are smoothly integrated into the user's work environment, supporting all kinds of activities. For example, a user might distribute a business card containing the reference to a convenient printer, thereby providing others with access to that printer. Because appliances have tangible representations, users can easily modify their behavior.

Developers can create new kinds of appliances to automate diverse user activities. Appliances can be hooked together to create, modify, and route information to other users.

Appliances, direct manipulation, tools, controls, and menus together provide redundancy for user commands. By separating the meaning of a command from the method used to execute it, developers free users to interact with objects more flexibly.