Mobile Communications Device Home Screen

Abstract

A mobile communications device home screen is described. In one or more implementations, a method is performed by a mobile communications device that includes receiving status updates of contacts from a social network service. A home screen of the mobile communications device is configured to include the status updates.

Description

BACKGROUND

Mobile communication devices (e.g., wireless phones) have become an integral part of everyday life. However, the form factor employed by conventional mobile communications devices is typically limited to promote mobility of the mobile communications device.

For example, the mobile communications device may have a relatively limited amount of display area when compared to a conventional desktop computer, e.g., a PC. Therefore, conventional techniques used to interact with a desktop computer may be inefficient when employed by a mobile communications device. For example, traditional navigation used to locate content and applications on a conventional desktop computer may be frustrating when implemented on a mobile communications device.

SUMMARY

A mobile communications device home screen is described. In one or more implementations, a method is performed by a mobile communications device that includes receiving status updates of contacts from a social network service. A home screen of the mobile communications device is configured to include the status updates.

In one or more implementations, a mobile communications device comprises a display device and one or more modules to provide telephone functionality. The one or more modules also configure a user interface to include a plurality of views between which navigation is achievable through detection of a pan gesture. A first one of the views is configured to display network feed information. A second one of the views is configured to display representations of contacts, at least one of which is configured to aid in initiating a telephone call using the telephone functionality. A third one of the views is configured to display representations of a plurality of applications.

In one or more implementations, one or more computer-readable media comprise instructions that are executable by a mobile communications device to configure a home screen to include a portion to receive an input that is to be communicated as a status update via a social network service to friends of a user associated with an account of the social network service. The home screen is also configured to display one or more status updates received from one or more of the friends via the social network service.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different instances in the description and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of a mobile communications device in accordance with one or more embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example system showing a home screen of FIG. 1 as having a plurality of views, including first, second, and third views.

FIG. 3 depicts a system in an example implementation in which a pan gesture is used to navigate between a plurality of views of a home screen output by a mobile communications device.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an example implementation in which a home screen of a mobile communications device is configured to include status updates from a social network service.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an example implementation in which a user interface is configured to have a plurality of views.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an example implementation in which a home screen is configured to form a status update and display status updates.

FIG. 7 illustrates various components of an example device that can be implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device to implement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Different types of content may have different importance to a user depending on the setting. For example, when interacting with a convention desktop PC in an office setting, a user may use a wide range of contacts to communicate for a variety of different reasons, such as for personal or business reasons and thus may access a large number of contacts. Additionally, a user may utilize a wide variety of applications in a typical day. However, a subset of this content may be utilized a bulk of the time when interacting with a mobile communications device in a mobile setting.

For example, in a mobile communications device a user may interact with applications and contacts. For both of these, however, a relatively small percentage of the total contacts and applications may be used regularly (or more frequently) by a typical user. Therefore, in an implementation this content is prioritized for quick and easy access through inclusion in a home screen of the mobile communications device. The home screen, for instance, may include representations of favorite contacts and applications for quick access.

In social networking services, categories of content may also be identified that are frequently used by a user of a mobile communications device, such as a “network feed” (e.g., a real time list of content, status updates from friends in a social network, and so on), the user's own profile information, and so on. In an implementation, these categories (e.g., favorite applications, favorite contacts, network feed, and profile information) are aggregated into a single seamless and simple experience in the home screen. Additionally, this information may be leveraged between categories. For instance, the designated favorite contacts and applications may be leveraged to prioritize information that is pulled into and displayed in the network feed. A variety of other examples are also contemplated, further discussion of which may be found in the following sections.

In the following discussion, a variety of example implementations of a mobile communications device (e.g., a wireless phone) are described. Additionally, a variety of different functionality that may be employed by the mobile communications device is described for each example, which may be implemented in that example as well as in other described examples. Accordingly, example implementations are illustrated of a few of a variety of contemplated implementations. Further, although a mobile communications device having one or more modules that are configured to provide telephonic functionality are described, a variety of other mobile devices are also contemplated, such as personal digital assistants, mobile music players, dedicated messaging devices, portable game devices, netbooks, and so on.

Example Implementations

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation 100 of a mobile communications device 102 in accordance with one or more embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications. The mobile communications device 102 is operable to assume a plurality of configurations, examples of which include a configuration as illustrated in FIG. 1 in which the mobile communications device 102 is “open” and a configuration in which the mobile communications device 102 is “closed” as illustrated in FIGS. 2-3.

The mobile communications device 102 is further illustrated as including a first housing 104 and a second housing 106 that are connected via a slide 108 such that the first and second housings 104, 106 may move (e.g., slide) in relation to one another. Although sliding is described, it should be readily apparent that a variety of other movement techniques are also contemplated, e.g., a pivot, a hinge and so on.

The first housing 104 includes a display device 110 that may be used to output a variety of data, such as a caller identification (ID), representations of content (e.g., contacts) as illustrated, email, multimedia messages, Internet browsing, game play, music, video and so on. In an implementation, the display device 110 may also be configured to function as an input device by incorporating touchscreen functionality, e.g., through capacitive, surface acoustic wave, resistive, optical, strain gauge, dispersive signals, acoustic pulse, and other touchscreen functionality. The touchscreen functionality (as well as other functionality such as track pads) may be used to detect gestures, further discussion of which may be found in relation to FIG. 3.

The second housing 106 is illustrated as including a keyboard 112 that may be used to provide inputs to the mobile communications device 102. Although the keyboard 112 is illustrated as a QWERTY keyboard, a variety of other examples are also contemplated, such as a keyboard that follows a traditional telephone keypad layout (e.g., a twelve key numeric pad found on basic telephones), keyboards configured for other languages (e.g., Cyrillic), and so on.

In the “open” configuration as illustrated in the example implementation 100 of FIG. 1, the first housing 104 is moved (e.g., slid) “away” from the second housing 106 using the slide 108. In this example configuration, at least a majority of the keys of the keyboard 112 (i.e., the physical keys) is exposed such that the exposed keys are available for use to provide inputs. The open configuration results in an extended form factor of the mobile communications device 102 as contrasted with the form factor of the mobile communications device 102 in the closed configuration of FIGS. 2-4. In an implementation, the planes of the first and second housings 104, 106 that are used to define the extended form factor are parallel to each other. Other implementations are also contemplated, such as a “clamshell” configuration, “brick” configuration, and so on.

The form factor employed by the mobile communications device 102 may be suitable to support a wide variety of features. For example, the keyboard 112 is illustrated as supporting a QWERTY configuration. This form factor may be particularly convenient to a user to utilize the previously described functionality of the mobile communications device 102, such as to compose texts, play games, check email, “surf” the Internet, provide status messages for a social network, and so on.

The mobile communications device 102 is also illustrated as including a communication module 114. The communication module 114 is representative of functionality of the mobile communications device 102 to communicate via a network 116. For example, the communication module 114 may include telephone functionality to make and receive telephone calls. The communication module 114 may also include a variety of other functionality, such as to form short message service (SMS) text messages, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, emails, status updates to be communicated to a social network service 118, and so on. A user, for instance, may input a status update for communication via the network 116 to the social network service 118, which is illustrated as status update 120. The social network service 118 may then publish the status update 120 to “friends” of the user, e.g., for receipt by the friends via a computer, respective mobile communications devices, and so on. A variety of other examples are also contemplated, such as blogging, instant messaging, and so on.

The mobile communications device 102 is also illustrated as including a user interface module 122. The user interface module 122 is representative of functionality of the mobile communications device 102 to generate, manage, and/or output a user interface for display on the display device 110. A variety of different techniques may be employed to generate the user interface.

For example, the user interface module 122 may configure the user interface as a home screen 124. Thus, in the following discussion the user interface configured as the home screen 124 may be referred to simply as home screen 124 to ease the discussion. The home screen 124 of the mobile communications device 102 is a base level (e.g., root) of a hierarchical structure usable to organize content and applications of the mobile communications device 102, much like a “desktop” of an operating system of a personal computer. In an implementation, the home screen is managed and output by an operating system (further discussion of which may be found in relation to FIG. 7) that is executed on the mobile communications device 102 as part of a hierarchical structure to provide access to content, e.g., applications and data.

In the illustrated example, the home screen 124 is configured by the user interface module 122 to output network feed information by pulling in aggregated content from the social network service 118 and other websites 126. For instance, the home screen 124 may display status updates obtained from a plurality of social network services via the network 116, like the status update 120 from the social network service 118. Examples of this are illustrated in FIG. 1 in the home screen 124 through use of an identifier of the contact and corresponding text of the status update, such as “Sara” and “is waiting for Ellie,” “Mike” and “is going to the lake,” “Lillie” and “wonders what to do?” and so on.

The home screen 124 also includes profile information of a user of the mobile communications device 102. In the illustrated example, a user “Ellie” is indicated along with a status update “is on her way” that is to be (or was) communicated to “friends” of Ellie via the social network service 118, such as Sara. The profile information may also include a portion 128 that is configured to receive an input of text and communicate this text to friends of Ellie via the social network service 118.

The profile information also includes a profile image 130 for Ellie, which is illustrated as a car in this example. In an implementation, a user may interact with the profile image 130 via the home screen 124 to change the image. Further, the profile information may be configured to provide access to the user's profile card, e.g., through selection of the user's name (“Ellie” in this example), the profile image 130, and so on. Thus, the home screen 124 may be used to output a variety of network feed information in real time as well as to provide information to be included in a network feed to another user. Although status updates were described in this example, it should be readily apparent that a wide variety of information may be output, such as data from an ecommerce site (e.g., bid updates on an auction site, advertisements, and so on), RSS feeds, and so on.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example system 200 showing the home screen 124 of FIG. 1 as having a plurality of views, including first, second, and third views 202, 204, 206. A first view 202 includes the functionality previously described in relation to FIG. 1 and is positioned as the center view of the home screen 124.

The second view 204, illustrated to the “right” of the first view 202, includes representations of contacts. Contacts may include a variety of information, such as email address, telephone numbers, mailing addresses, social network service identifiers, and so on that are stored and/or accessible via the mobile communications device 102. In the illustrated implementation, a subset of the representations is available directly via the second view 204. For example, a user of the mobile communications device 102 may manually specify an “inner circle” of friends and family as illustrated. Thus, the user may specify the contacts with which the user frequently interacts, wishes to frequently interact with in the future, and so on.

In another example, the inner circle may be automatically specified by the user interface module 122 by monitoring communications, e.g., which may be based on frequency of interaction, how recent the interaction occurred, and so on. A variety of other examples are also contemplated. The second view 204 also includes a portion that is selectable to “view all” contacts such that the user may locate a contact that is not in the inner circle.

The user interface module 122 may also provide a variety of different functionality that leverages which contacts are specified for inclusion in the second view 204. For instance, inclusion in the “inner circle” may be used to determine which status updates are included in the first view 202. Therefore, a status update received for a contact represented in the “inner circle” is displayed in the first view 202 as part of the network feed information. In another example, inclusion of the contacts (and more particularly a reference to the contacts using the representation) in the inner circle may be used to prioritize display of the status updates in the first view 202 (e.g., to specify an arrangement). Status updates that correspond to the inner circle, for instance, may be displayed before (e.g., “above” in a vertical column) status updates from contacts that are not a part of the inner circle. A variety of other examples are also contemplated.

The third view 206, illustrated to the “left” of the first view 202, includes representations of applications that are executable on the mobile communications device 102. Like the “inner circle” described in the second view 204, a subset of the representations of applications is made available directly via the third view 206. For example, a user of the mobile communications device 102 may manually specify “favorite applications” as illustrated. In another example, the user interface module 122 makes the determination of which applications are to be included as favorites in the third view 206, such as through monitored interaction as previously described in relation to the contacts.

Inclusion of representations of applications in the third view 206 may also be leveraged in a variety of ways by the user interface module 122 like the inclusion of representations of contacts in the second view 204. For example, the user interface module 122 may leverage the third view 206 to determine which network feed information is displayed in the first view 202, prioritize display of information in the first view 202, and so on. For instance, the user may specify that an application that links to an ecommerce site is to be referenced in the third view 206, such as to a media download website for movies, music, videos, and so on. Accordingly, an RSS feed, advertisements, and so on associated with the application (and consequently the ecommerce site) may then be included in the first view 202. In another instance, inclusion or exclusion of representations in the third view 206 may be used to prioritize corresponding network feed information in the first view 202. A variety of other examples are also contemplated.

In an implementation, each of the first, second, and third views 202, 204, 206 are sized to substantially consume a display area of the display device 110 of the mobile communications device 102 of FIG. 1. For instance, each of the first, second, and third views 202, 204, 206 has a width that substantially matches a width of the display device 110 of FIG. 1. Navigation between the views may be performed in a variety of ways, an example of which is discussed in relation to the following figure.

FIG. 3 depicts a system 300 in an example implementation in which detection of a pan gesture is used to navigate between a plurality of views of the home screen 124 output by the mobile communications device 102. In an implementation, the display device 110 of the mobile communications device 102 includes touchscreen functionality that may be leveraged to detect a gesture input via a user's hand 302 or other input device, e.g., a stylus. Consequently, interaction of the user's hand 302 (or other input device) with the display device 110 may be used to control operation of the mobile communications device 102.

For example, a pan gesture may be detected to navigate between the first, second, and third views 202, 204, 206 of the home screen 124. The pan gesture may involve placing a finger of the user's hand 302 on a surface of the display device 110 and dragging the finger across the surface. The user interface module 122 of FIG. 1 may then detect this gesture and cause the home screen 124 to move in a direction that follows the movement of the finger. Therefore, a pan gesture that involves dragging the finger of the user's hand 302 to the right in the illustrated system 300 may cause the third view 206 to be displayed on the display device 110. Likewise, a pan gesture that involves dragging the finger of the user's hand 302 to the left in the illustrated system 300 may cause the second view 204 to be displayed on the display device 110. Vertical panning may be used to view additional representations “below” those already displayed in the different views. Although a pan gesture has been described, a variety of different techniques may be used to navigate between the first, second, and third views 202, 204, 206 of the home screen 124, such as through use of a cursor control device (e.g., trackball), key combination, and so on.

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes user interface techniques that may be implemented utilizing the previously described systems and devices. Aspects of each of the procedures may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocks that specify operations performed by one or more devices and are not necessarily limited to the orders shown for performing the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of the following discussion, reference will be made to the environment 100 and systems 200-300 of FIGS. 1-3, respectively.

FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in which a home screen of a mobile communications device is configured to include status updates from a social network service. Status updates of contacts are received from a social network service (block 402). For example, the social network service 118 may receive status updates 120 from members of the service. The social network service 118 may then determine which of those members have been specified as “friends” of the user (e.g., Ellie) and communicate those via the network 116 to the mobile communications device 102, such as through a “push” or “pull” mechanism.

A home screen of the mobile communications device is configured to include the status updates (block 404). Continuing with the previous example, the user interface module 122 may receive the status updates 120 from the social network service 118 and determine which of those updates corresponds to an “inner circle” of contacts. The updates that correspond to the inner circle are then included with an identifier (e.g., user name) and profile image of the contact in the first view 202 of the home screen 124. In another example, each of the status updates are included in the first view 202 regardless of whether they correspond to the inner circle of the second view 204. A variety of other examples are also contemplated.

FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an example implementation in which a user interface is configured to have a plurality of views. A user interface for display on a display device is configured to include a plurality of views (block 502). In an implementation, each of the views is configured to have a width that substantially corresponds to a width of the display device 110. The views may be configured in a variety of ways.

For example, a first one of the views may be configured to display network feed information (block 504), such as status updates, RSS information, and so on. A second one of the views may be configured to display representations of contacts, at least one of which is configured to aid in initiating a telephone call using telephone functionality (block 506). A representation of a contact “Fincher,” for instance, in the second view 204 of FIGS. 2 and 3 may be selectable to display associated contact information that may then be selected to place a call to a telephone number included in the information. In an implementation, the representation is selectable directly to initiate the call.

A third one of the views is configured to display representations of a plurality of applications (block 508). The views may be configured in a variety of ways, examples of which are displayed in FIGS. 2-3 in which the first view 202 is a primary view (e.g., display initially upon navigation to the home screen 124) from which navigation to the second and third views 204, 206 is performed.

The network feed information is prioritized based on which contacts or applications are represented in the second or third views (block 510). As previously described, the user interface module 122 may determine a priority of network feed information by which content was specified as a favorite or part of an “inner circle.” This specification may be made directly by a user by manually picking which content is to be represented in the views and/or indirectly automatically and without user intervention by monitoring the user's interactions by the user interface module 122.

Network feed information is aggregated from a plurality of websites (block 512). For example, status updates from multiple social network services may be displayed in the first view 202. In another example, information from other websites 126 may be included, such as ecommerce websites, RSS feeds, and so on as previously described. The user interface is then displayed on the display device of the mobile communications device (block 514).

FIG. 6 depicts a procedure 600 in an example implementation in which a home screen is configured to form a status update and display status updates. A home screen is configured to include a portion to receive an input that is to be communicated as a status update via a social network service to friends of a user associated with an account of the social network service (block 602). For example, a user (e.g., Ellie) of the mobile communications device 102 may have an account at a social network service 118. In association with this account, the user may specify “friends” that are permitted to receive status updates 120 from the user via the service.

The home screen is also configured to display one or more status updates received from one or more of the friends via the social network service (block 604). Thus, in this example the home screen 124 may serve as a convenient way to interact via a social network service 118 with other users. A variety of other examples are also contemplated.

Example Device

FIG. 7 illustrates various components of an example device 700 that can be implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device to implement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications. For example, device 700 can be implemented as any of the mobile communications devices 102 described with reference to respective FIGS. 1-3. Device 700 can also be implemented to access a network-based service, such as a social network service as previously described.

Device 700 includes input 702 that may include Internet Protocol (IP) inputs as well as other input devices, such as the keyboard 112 of FIG. 1. Device 700 further includes communication interface 704 that can be implemented as any one or more of a wireless interface, any type of network interface, and as any other type of communication interface. A network interface provides a connection between device 700 and a communication network by which other electronic and computing devices can communicate data with device 700. A wireless interface enables device 700 to operate as a mobile device for wireless communications.

Device 700 also includes one or more processors 706 (e.g., any of microprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process various computer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 700 and to communicate with other electronic devices. Device 700 can be implemented with computer-readable media 708, such as one or more memory components, examples of which include random access memory (RAM) and non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.).

Computer-readable media 708 provides data storage to store content and data 710, as well as device applications and any other types of information and/or data related to operational aspects of device 700. For example, an operating system 712 can be maintained as a computer application with the computer-readable media 708 and executed on processor 706. Device applications can also include a communication manager module 714 (which may be used to provide telephonic functionality) and a media manager 716.

Device 700 also includes an audio and/or video output 718 that provides audio and/or video data to an audio rendering and/or display system 720. The audio rendering and/or display system 720 can be implemented as integrated component(s) of the example device 700, and can include any components that process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video, and image data. Device 700 can also be implemented to provide a user tactile feedback, such as vibrate and haptics.

Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that are configured to provide represented functionality. Further, any of the functions described herein can be implemented using software, firmware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a combination of these implementations. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and “logic” as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware or a combination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, the module, functionality, or logic represents program code that performs specified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can be stored in one or more computer readable memory devices. The features of the techniques described above are platform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety of processors.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claimed invention.

Claims

1. A method performed by a mobile communications device, the method comprising: receiving status updates of contacts from a social network service; andconfiguring a home screen of the mobile communications device to include the status updates.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the home screen is a base level of a hierarchical structure usable to organize content and applications of the mobile communications device.

3. A method as described in claim 2, wherein the hierarchical structure is managed as part of an operating system executed by the mobile communications device.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein at least one said status update is text that was input by a user associated with the social network service that describes a message to be communicated to friends of the user.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the contacts are specified as friends of a user associated with an account of the social network service.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein: the home screen includes a plurality of views;a first said view includes the status updates and profile information of a user associated with an account of the social network service; andthe account references the contacts from which the status updates are to be received.

7. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the profile information in the first said view includes a portion that is configured to accept a status update of the user.

8. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the first said view aggregates status updates from a plurality of said social network services.

9. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the first said view aggregates the status updates with updates from one or more specified websites, at least one of which is an ecommerce website.

10. A method as described in claim 6, wherein a second said view of the home screen includes representations of the contacts.

11. A method as described in claim 10, wherein: the contacts included in the second said view are a subset of a plurality of contacts stored on the mobile communications device such that at least one of the plurality of contacts is not used to provide a status update in the first said view; andthe second said view includes a portion that is selectable to view the plurality of contacts.

12. A method as described in claim 6, wherein: a third said view of the home screen includes representations of a subset of a plurality of applications that are available for execution on the mobile communications device; andthe third said view includes a portion that is selectable to view the plurality of applications.

13. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the mobile communications device includes telephone functionality and at least one representation of the contacts is selectable to initiate a telephone call.

14. A method as described in claim 1, wherein: the home screen includes a plurality of views between which navigation is achievable through detection of a pan gesture using touchscreen functionality of the mobile communications device;a first said view includes the status updates and profile information of a user associated with an account of the social network service;a second said view includes representations of the contacts; anda third said view includes representations of a plurality of applications that are available for execution on the mobile communications device.

15. A mobile communications device comprising a display device and one or more modules to provide telephone functionality and to configure a user interface for display on the display device to include a plurality of views between which navigation is achievable through detection of a pan gesture, in which: a first said view is configured to display network feed information;a second said view is configured to display representations of contacts, at least one of which is configured to aid in initiating a telephone call using the telephone functionality; anda third said view is configured to display representations of a plurality of applications.

16. A mobile communications device as described in claim 15, wherein the network feed information includes status updates received from a social network service.

17. A mobile communications device as described in claim 15, wherein the network feed information includes data received from an ecommerce website.

18. A mobile communications device as described in claim 15, wherein the network feed information is prioritized in the first said view based on: which contacts were selected for display in the second said view, wherein the contacts that were selected for display are a subset of a plurality of contacts that are stored by the mobile communications device; orwhich representations of applications were selected for display in the third said view, wherein the representations of the applications that were selected for display are a subset of a plurality of applications that are available for execution by the mobile communications device.

19. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that are executable by a mobile communications device to configure a home screen to include: a portion to receive an input that is to be communicated as a status update via a social network service to friends of a user associated with an account of the social network service; anddisplay one or more status updates received from one or more of the friends via the social network service.

20. One or more computer-readable media as described in claim 19, wherein the home screen is a base level of a hierarchical structure usable to organize content and applications by an operating system of the mobile communications device included in the one or more instructions.