1. In a computer system for monitoring a process, the computer system having a graphical user interface for displaying the status of components used in operation of the process, each component being represented on the graphical user interface by an associated graphical object that is generated or rendered by an application from a related vector graphic file, the improvement comprising a method of animating said graphical object to show a change in the status of the component being represented, the method comprising: inserting into said vector graphic file an animation instruction, the animation instruction complying with predefined syntax, the animation instruction not violating a prescribed format for the vector graphic file and the animation instruction being ignored by said application; the animation instruction defining one or more animation effects that are dependent upon a value of at least one variable and a set of conditions applying to the at least one variable; the value of said at least one variable being dependent upon the status of said component being represented; and running an interpreter engine to: (a) recognize and parse said animation instruction, (b) retrieve a current value of said at least one variable, (c) determine a required animation effect based on checking the retrieved current value of the at least one variable against said set of conditions, and (d) instruct the application to modify said graphical object to exhibit the determined animation effect.