1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to computer displays and graphical user interfaces and more specifically relates to an apparatus and method for highlighting related user interface controls on a user interface.
2. Background Art
Computer systems use a variety of user interface methods to display information and to prompt input from a computer user. These interface methods are often referred to as a user interface. An important aspect of all computer systems is the ease of use and the intuitiveness of the user interface. Most popular computer systems today use a graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer display screen to interact with the computer's user. Many GUI's employ one or more windows that can be opened on the computer's display. A window is a division of a computer display screen, which can be opened, closed, and moved around on the screen by the computer user. A window often includes a menu bar that contains one or more selections available to the user and drop down menus that are activated when an item on the menu bar is selected.
In many GUI's for computer programs, there is a great deal of information, including menus, icons, buttons, and selection boxes displayed in the GUI window. In these complex computer programs, users are increasingly confronted with extremely sophisticated sequences of possible steps that can be selected. Thus, it becomes confusing for the user to readily understand what actions are appropriate at any given time. And even in less complex situations, it is advantageous for the new user to be shown what options are available to make using the software intuitive. Some GUI's change the appearance of tool bars and menu buttons depending on the state of the current operation, the location of the cursor, and the items selected. However, when a computer user selects an item in a computer window in prior art GUIs, it is not readily apparent to the user what actions or user interface options are related to the selected object or available to perform some action on the selected object. Further, when controls are highlighted in the prior art depending on the selected object, they have the same highlighting as other controls that are currently available.
It would be advantageous for a GUI to give more guidance to the user on what options are related to a selected object or will affect a selected object. Without a simpler and more intuitive way to assist computer users to navigate through a user interface, the computer industry will continue to unnecessarily burden the computer users with the complexity of choices available in computer software user interfaces.
According to the preferred embodiments, an apparatus and method is described for highlighting related user interface controls to selected items in order to improve the ease of use and the intuitiveness of a graphical user interface. In preferred embodiments, user interface controls that are specifically related to a selected object in the display are uniquely highlighted when an object is selected to show the user what user interface options are related to or available to perform some action on the selected object. The preferred embodiments of related highlighted controls can be used in conjunction with prior art highlighted controls that show what actions are available to the user for the current environment or cursor location.
While the preferred embodiments described herein are directed to user interfaces on a windows computer operating system and computer applications, the claimed embodiments herein expressly include other computer user interface applications and operating systems that employ a user interface, including those user interfaces that are used on handheld computers, phones, audio players, and personal digital assistants.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, where like designations denote like elements, and:
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for highlighting related user interface controls to selected items. In preferred embodiments, user interface controls that are related to a selected object in the display are uniquely highlighted when an object is selected to show the user what user interface options are specifically related to or available to perform some action on the selected object. This brief description of window displays and prior art GUIs provides background information that will help the reader to understand the present invention.
1. Prior Art
Prior art Example of a Windows Type Graphical User Interface
2. Detailed Description
An apparatus and method is described herein for highlighting GUI controls and buttons to give the user clues how to proceed with input. In preferred embodiments, GUI controls are highlighted based specifically on the selected object as described further below. GUI controls that are highlighted in response to the selected object include menu items, tool bar and tool box buttons, browser page objects and browser page buttons,
Referring to
Main memory 120 in accordance with the preferred embodiments contains data 121, an operating system 122, an application program 123, and a graphical user interface 124. Data 121 represents any data that serves as input to or output from any program in computer system 100. Operating system 122 is a multitasking operating system known in the industry as i5/OS; however, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the spirit and scope of the present invention is not limited to any one operating system. The application 123 can be any software application. The graphical user interface 124 can be part of the operating system 122 or part of the application program 123. In preferred embodiments, the graphical user interface includes a related user interface control highlighting mechanism 125 as described further below.
Computer system 100 utilizes well known virtual addressing mechanisms that allow the programs of computer system 100 to behave as if they only have access to a large, single storage entity instead of access to multiple, smaller storage entities such as main memory 120 and DASD device 155. Therefore, while data 121, operating system 122, application 123, and the graphical user interface 124 are shown to reside in main memory 120, those skilled in the art will recognize that these items are not necessarily all completely contained in main memory 120 at the same time. It should also be noted that the term “memory” is used herein to generically refer to the entire virtual memory of computer system 100, and may include the virtual memory of other computer systems coupled to computer system 100.
Processor 110 may be constructed from one or more microprocessors and/or integrated circuits. Processor 110 executes program instructions stored in main memory 120. Main memory 120 stores programs and data that processor 110 may access. When computer system 100 starts up, processor 110 initially executes the program instructions that make up operating system 122. Operating system 122 is a sophisticated program that manages the resources of computer system 100. Some of these resources are processor 110, main memory 120, mass storage interface 130, display interface 140, network interface 150, and system bus 160.
Although computer system 100 is shown to contain only a single processor and a single system bus, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be practiced using a computer system that has multiple processors and/or multiple buses. In addition, the interfaces that are used in the preferred embodiment each include separate, fully programmed microprocessors that are used to off-load compute-intensive processing from processor 110. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention applies equally to computer systems that simply use I/O adapters to perform similar functions.
Display interface 140 is used to directly connect one or more displays 165 to computer system 100. These displays 165, which may be non-intelligent (i.e., dumb) terminals or fully programmable workstations, are used to allow system administrators and users to communicate with computer system 100. Note, however, that while display interface 140 is provided to support communication with one or more displays 165, computer system 100 does not necessarily require a display 165, because all needed interaction with users and other processes may occur via network interface 150.
Network interface 150 is used to connect other computer systems and/or workstations (e.g., 175 in
At this point, it is important to note that while the present invention has been and will continue to be described in the context of a fully functional computer system, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of computer-readable signal bearing media used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of suitable computer-readable signal bearing media include: recordable type media such as floppy disks and CD RW (e.g., 195 of
Embodiments of the present invention may also be delivered as part of a service engagement with a client corporation, nonprofit organization, government entity, internal organizational structure, or the like. Aspects of these embodiments may include configuring a computer system to perform, and deploying software, hardware, and web services that implement, some or all of the methods described herein. Aspects of these embodiments may also include analyzing the client's operations, creating recommendations responsive to the analysis, building systems that implement portions of the recommendations, integrating the systems into existing processes and infrastructure, metering use of the systems, allocating expenses to users of the systems, and billing for use of the systems.
It is also important to point out that the presence of network interface 150 within computer system 100 means that computer system 100 may engage in cooperative processing with one or more other computer systems or workstations on network 170. Of course, this in turn means that the programs and data shown in main memory 120 need not necessarily all reside on computer system 100. For example, one or more portions shown in main memory 120 may reside on another system and engage in cooperative processing with one or more objects or programs that reside on computer system 100. This cooperative processing could be accomplished through use of one of the well known client-server mechanisms such as remote procedure call (RPC).
Again referring to
In the above described embodiments, the related control was “highlighted” by showing the control darkened on the screen. Other embodiments herein include how the highlighting could be visually represented on the screen. The highlighting could include any other appropriate representation such as using different colors, blinking, border treatment, reverse video etc. In addition, different highlighting could be used for different purposes. For example, a red color could be used for destructive actions such as delete or cut, and a green color could be used for less destructive actions such as copy and paste. In another embodiment, the color could be used to indicate what role a person must be enrolled to use the action, such as red for a security officer, and green for an administrator. In this way the different highlighting can emphasize different criteria for the related controls or different characteristics of the related controls. The different criteria of the related controls offers information to the user about the different types of controls available to use with the selected object or operate on the selected object.
Referring now to
It is known in the prior art to navigate GUI controls such as a menu bar or browser page menu controls with the keyboard. This is sometimes referred to as tab setting, because it is common to use the tab key along with the arrow keys to move between menu commands. Using the tab key is particularly common when moving between user interface controls within a browser page. In many software applications, this feature is available after pressing a control key to move the cursor to the menu bar. The arrow keys can then be used to sequentially move the cursor through the menu bar options.
In contrast, in preferred embodiments, a subsetted tab order is used to navigate only the GUI menu elements that are uniquely highlighted as described above. In preferred embodiments, a subsetted tab order is activated with a special key stroke such that the keyboard can navigate the user interface controls as described above but the navigation is limited to the subset of uniquely highlighted controls. The special key stroke to activate the subsetted tab order could be the combination of “ctrl” and “Alt” and “tab.”
An apparatus and method has been described for highlighting related user interface controls to objects that are currently selected on the display screen to show the user what actions or menu options are available to perform some action on the selected object or related to the selected object. The described embodiments improve the ease of use and the intuitiveness of a graphical user interface by reducing the complexity of choices available and assisting a computer user to efficiently navigate through the GUI.
One skilled in the art will appreciate that many variations are possible within the scope of the present invention. Thus, while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that these and other changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
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