Patent Application
20230097312
This disclosure relates to a system and method to enable a user to navigate through and/or interact with displayed content, and more particularly, to enable a user to navigate through and/or interact with displayed content concerning a renovation of a dwelling or dwelling construction project. Still more particularly, this disclosure relates to a system and method for displaying project-dashboard content on a rectangular portion of a screen corresponding to a user-selectable icon that is displayed on an adjacent circular portion of a screen.
There may be a great deal of information to manage when undertaking a dwelling renovation or construction project. For example, a property owner may appreciate being able to rapidly access information related to many of the following: construction progress, construction costs, financing, property value, suggested upgrades, relevant news, relevant publications, and so on. Currently such information may be available in print or electronic form from; however, it may not be aggregated and presented in a unified manner, and it may not be updated and made available in real time to the property owner.
There are many dashboards and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that organize information, present information to a user, and enable the user to navigate and interact with the information. Some dashboards and GUIs (hereafter simply “dashboards”) are implemented on a desktop computer or mobile device while others are implemented on custom computing hardware and/or devices. There are some applications, such as dwelling renovation or construction projects, where the user may not have the time, patience, or skill to learn how to navigate or interface with an unfamiliar dashboard. In such case, an interface that is modeled after a familiar device may enable the user to more naturally navigate and interact with dashboard content, thereby providing an improved user experience. For example, many smart thermostat interfaces are modeled after a familiar analog circular thermostat. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,195,313. However, an oversimplified interface can make it difficult to navigate and interact with dense, rich, or voluminous content that may be available during a dwelling renovation or construction project, such as content concerning project management, financial reports, and news feeds.
The present invention solves one or more of the aforementioned problems in the prior art.
The several embodiments provide a system and method to enable a user to easily and rapidly navigate and interact with a dashboard of information related to a dwelling renovation or construction project. There are several objects of the several embodiments, including: providing a familiar control interface; enabling a user to naturally page through content using a familiar control interface; and displaying summary content and detailed content corresponding to a user-selected icon.
It is an object of some embodiments to provide a display method for a computing device that includes a circular portion of a screen and an adjacent rectangular portion of a screen. The computing device displays a plurality of icons within the circular portion near a perimeter thereof. In response to a user selecting a first icon, first summary content may be displayed near a center of the circular portion and first detailed content may be displayed in the rectangular portion. In response to the user selecting a second icon, second summary content may be displayed near the center of the circular portion and second detailed content may be displayed in the rectangular portion. An icon may be selected by any suitable means, for example via mouse point-and-click or via touchscreen contact. Further, an icon may be selected by mouse click(s) only, mouse click-and-drag, touchscreen touch(es) only, or touchscreen touch-and-drag. In some embodiments, the circular portion may be disposed concentrically within a rotatable dial, where an icon may be selected by physically rotating the dial.
Some embodiments provide a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions for causing a computing device to perform a method for displaying content. In some embodiments, the method includes:
A more complete appreciation of the present disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.
The present disclosure may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of the disclosure taken in connection with the accompanying drawing figures, which form a part of this disclosure. It is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to the specific devices, methods, conditions, or parameters described and/or shown herein, and that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting of the claimed disclosure. Also, as used in the specification and including the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include the plural, and reference to a particular numerical value includes at least that particular value, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
In this disclosure, the terms “renovation” and “construction” may be used interchangeably to describe a project related to improving, expanding, or building a residential dwelling. The terms “information” and “content” may be used interchangeably herein to describe data, text, figures, images, statistics, facts, records, notifications, communications, and so on. The terms “dial,” “knob,” and “wheel” may be used interchangeably herein to describe a physically or virtually rotatable control element. Terms “circular” and “round” may be used interchangeably to describe an element whose perimeter is composed of more curved edges than straight edges. The term “rectangular” may be used to describe an element whose shape is composed of more straight edges than curved edges. The term “adjacent” means next-to or near-by, where adjacent objects may be separated by a distance and/or separated by intervening objects. A “stationary computing device” is a computing device that is generally not carried by a user during use, such as a desktop or laptop computer. A “mobile device” is a computing device that may be readily carried by a user during use, such as a mobile phone or a tablet. A “user” may be any person who uses the system and method described herein, for example a property owner, a customer, a contractor, a service provider, and so on.
The following numerals are used to describe various features of the embodiments.
In the embodiments shown in
In some embodiments the user may touch the screen 20 at or near an icon, for example a first icon 130a (or position a mouse cursor at or near the first icon 130a and click a mouse button) and then drag the first icon 130a along an arcuate path to the home position 150 in a manner similar to a rotary dialer on a rotary telephone. Such action causes the first icon 130a to be selected. In some embodiments the user may touch the screen 20 at or near the first icon 130a (or position a mouse cursor at or near the first icon 130a and click a mouse button) and then drag the first icon 130a by a predetermined distance along an arcuate path such that a second icon 130b becomes located at the home position 150. Such action causes the second icon 130b to be selected (rather than the first icon 130a). In some embodiments, the appearance of a cursor 202 may be altered when it is located at or near an icon 130 (or located at or near the perimeter of the circular portion 100) to indicate to a user that selection is possible. For example, the cursor 202 may appear as an arrow when it is not located at or near any icon 130, and it may appear as a hand when it is located at or near an icon 130. Additionally, the appearance of the cursor 202 may be further altered when a user performs a click-and-drag or touch-and-drag operation. For example, during a click-and-drag or touch-and-drag operation the cursor 202 may change from an open hand to a closed fist.
The computing device 10 may alter an appearance of a selected icon 130 immediately after it has been selected or after a delay, for example, after the selected icon 130 has revolved to the home position 150. The altered appearance may include a change in color, size, and/or shape of the selected icon 130 or of a region surrounding the selected icon 130 (e.g., a glow or highlight effect).
In some embodiments, after an icon 130 has been selected, summary content 170 is displayed at the center 120 of the circular portion 100 and detailed content 180 is displayed in the rectangular portion 160. The summary content 170 may be an enlarged or stylized version of the selected icon 130, or it may be some salient data taken or determined from the detailed content 180 or from elsewhere. For example, an icon that resembles a dollar sign “$” may represent a financial dashboard that a user can explore via the computing device 10. When the user selects such a “$” icon 130, the summary content 170 may consist of the user's numerical credit score (e.g., a single number) and the detailed content 180 may comprise information detailing the user's mortgage payments, credit history, monthly income, running project costs, and so on. The user may interact with the detailed content 180 via any suitable means, for example touching the rectangular portion 160 of the screen 120 at certain locations with a touch device 210.
When a user rotates the dial 220, the computing device 10 may cause the icons 130 to revolve in unison about the center 120 of the circular portion 100 until the selected icon 130 is located at a home position 150. The revolution of icons 130 may equal the angular speed of the dial 220, or the revolution of icons 130 may be greater or less than the angular speed of the dial 220, and such speed may be configurable by a user in some embodiments. An icon 130 may snap to (or from) the home position as rotation of the dial 220 causes that icon 130 to revolve towards (or away) from the home position 150.
The exemplary embodiments of
Content represented by the icons 130 and displayed by the computing device 10 may include: a dwelling analysis report comprising property information and suggested upgrades to the property; a status of any existing or future dwelling renovation or construction projects for the property; a project exploration and configuration tool and/or calculator; a project benefit and/or cost analysis; a customer's financial report; project scheduling information; a feed of curated articles and blog entries matching the customer's current or future projects or project interests; a communications portal between the property owner and select contractors and/or service providers; and a project archive comprising information related to timelines, phases, milestones, deliverables, and reports.
The computing device 10 may display a toggle button 240 that enables a user to toggle between displaying activities and notifications. An example of an activity may be a scheduled visit by a contractor or service provider to capture aerial images and lidar scans of a subject property, whereas an example of a notification may be a reminder that a contractor or service provider will be visiting the property in one hour. Notifications may comprise emails, text messages, images, voice recordings, videos, or any other suitable communication formats. The toggle button 240 may be displayed adjacent to the circular portion 100, for example below the circular portion 100 as shown in
In some embodiments, when the toggle button 240 is toggled to “activities,” the rectangular portion 160 may highlight or exclusively display any activities, and when the toggle button 240 is toggled to “notifications,” the rectangular portion 160 may highlight or exclusively display any notifications.
In some embodiments, the icons 130 displayed in the circular portion 100 may be redundantly displayed at another location outside the circular portion 100, for example adjacent thereto.
As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts. While illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure have been described and illustrated above, it should be understood that these are exemplary of the disclosure and are not to be considered as limiting. Additions, deletions, substitutions, and other modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the present disclosure is not to be considered as limited by the foregoing description.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63248946 | Sep 2021 | US |
