1. A method for displaying items in a graphical user interface, comprising the steps of: displaying a plurality of user-activated graphical representations of items on a dock within a display area, wherein activation of one of said representations in the dock by a user causes a corresponding item to be launched and displayed in said display area; detecting the positioning of a cursor within a predetermined distance from at least one of said representations; in response to said detection, increasing the representation closest to said cursor to a designated size while maintaining the aspect ratio of said representation, and increasing other representations in said dock to sizes which are an inversely related to their distances from said cursor, while maintaining their respective aspect ratios; and moving the representations within said dock away from the representations whose sizes are increased, so that representations in the vicinity of said increased-size representations are not obscured.