Graphical user interface with fisheye adaptation principle

Details Graphical user interface with fisheye adaptation principle Graphical user interface with fisheye adaptation principle

1993-01-19

1995-10-17

Kuntz, Curtis

Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system

Display peripheral interface input device

Touch panel

345156, 395160, G09G 302

Patent

active

054594880

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for handling the dialog of the user with technical equipment, such as a computerized a telecommunications terminal device, a navigation system in the motor vehicle, or a video cassette recorder VCR, by which adaptation of the dialog to user needs (previous experience, or practice, for instance). Dialog is the term used here for the mutual exchange of information between the user and technical equipment. Technical equipment means a gadget whose functional range is so extensive and complex that its use poses problems, at least for some users.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The user-friendliness of some technical equipment is determined by how the graphical user interface (GUI) or the dialog between the user and the equipment is designed. Users of technical equipment differ from one another in many aspects: their prior experience, capabilities, practice, and preferences. Even one and the same user has different traits, when he is interacting with equipment at various times; for instance, a skilled user may revert to being an inexperienced one after being out of practice for some time.
It is known that inexperienced users require a different form of dialog design from what skilled users need. In principle, the general outline, of the demands for dialog design for the two classes of users, is also known. Inexperienced users need step-by-step guidance (serial dialog); moreover, they must usually be taught what the range of functions of the equipment and the tasks it can perform look like., Skilled users, conversely, want fast access to the range of functions they are familiar with (parallel dialog). Dialog by menus, supplemented with tutorial and help functions, is therefore a suitable form of dialog for inexperienced users, while the needs of the skilled user are better met by function-key dialog.
No form of dialog exists that meets the demands of both the inexperienced and the skilled user. It follows that the dialog design must be flexible, rather than rigid, adapting the dialog to the user. Two options for adapting dialog to the needs of the user are known: adaptable and adaptive dialogs. In adaptable dialog, the user influences the form of dialog by his own decisions, in order to adapt it to his needs. Dialog presets that become operative when the equipment is turned on (known as defaults) can support the user. One known method is called the user profile, which permits the user to set the font, font size, and window dimensions, for instance. Conversely, in adaptive dialog, this adaptation proceeds automatically, without any action on the part of the user. The prerequisite for this latter form of adaptation is that knowledge about the user be available in the technical equipment. The design of adaptive dialogs is still being researched, and will not be considered hereinafter.
For one aspect of the field of man-machine dialog, the display of information on a screen, Furnas, in 1986, proposed an adaptable display form with fisheye organization. The purpose of fisheye organization is to seek a balanced relationship between displaying local detail and global context, on the same screen, using a single form of display. By analogy with an extreme wide-angle lens (or "fisheye lens"), a more-detailed display is provided in the center of observation (for instance, around the fixation point at a given time), yet nevertheless imaging of the surrounding "world" is not omitted: fewer and fewer details are shown as the distance from the center increases.
For formal description of a fisheye organization, FURNAS 1986 defines a function that fixes and defines the relevance of each element of a two-dimensional information structure. Based on this relevance, the decision is then made as to whether an element will be displayed. The relevance is composed of two components, which are the a priori weighting of importance and the weighting of distance. The additive form of the relevance function is as follows: the degree of relevance that a point (x, y) has if the instantaneous fix

REFERENCES:
patent: 4763117 (1988-08-01), Blattner
"Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics", Jul. 1984, pp. 220 to 228.
"Microsoft Windows", 1990-1993, pp. 1 to 7.
George W. Furnas, "Generalized Fisheye Views" in Human Factors in Computing Systems, vol. III of Proceedings of the CHI '86 Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Assoc'n for Computing Machinery, Apr. 13-17, 1986, pp. 16-23.
ACM publication No. 089791-180-6/86/0400.

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