Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-10
2001-04-24
Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2773)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06222537
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer system user interface controls and in particular to supporting flexible creation of user interfaces.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are a required feature of very many computer application programs, because of the ease of use that they provide as compared with most alternatives. Users generally do not want to be required to know specific commands, operators, syntax rules, etc, and much work has been expended on developing user interfaces which alleviate the need for such knowledge.
Users of a GUI typically interact with icons and controls in a GUI by moving a mouse pointer and then clicking a mouse button when the pointer is over the icon or control, or using other input devices such as a keyboard, microphone, light pen, and the like. (Hereafter, the mouse is referred to as an example input device without implying any limitation to this device). To enable the user to invoke particular operations on a computer system, the user interface needs to provide selection mechanisms to the user. In a typical user interface environment, this may be achieved by defining user interface controls such as toolbar buttons which invoke an operation in response to user interaction, context menus and combination box controls that allow selection of particular actions or property values (e.g. font selection), entry fields that allow the setting of a string property (e.g. a Web page URL), check boxes, scrollable lists, and radio buttons. Such controls are very widely used within user interfaces. The programming code which implements them is typically written by a programmer as part of the task of application program development, or pre-defined controls are supplied by the operating system or development environment.
In the past, GUIs have tended to be standardised by GUI developers so that users can easily and quickly learn how to use a new product. The use of standard features minimises the amount of new and unfamiliar user interaction sequences and interface behaviour that must be learnt and so avoids user effort and frustration. Since many user interface controls such as those mentioned above have been given consistent behaviour and visual appearance across a great many applications, they are now easily recognised and used by computer users.
However, with the accelerating interest in the World Wide Web Internet service as a vehicle for providing access to a huge range of different material and in particular as an advertising medium, consistency of appearance is becoming less desirable. Companies each want their own Web site to be distinctive—to be more eye catching, more memorable and more animated than their competitors' sites. The same requirements for distinctiveness also increasingly apply to application programs which are sold for local installation. Thus, the traditional bland grey appearance of user interface controls is often undesirable and graphic designers are increasingly being employed to create more distinctive alternatives.
Whilst graphic designers are skilled in the creation of exciting visuals, they do not typically have the programming skills necessary to deploy those visuals in the way they (or their customers) might like. A large number of GUI builder products, comprising computer program products for assisting a user with GUI creation, are now commercially available. Although simplifying the task of creating a user interface, many existing GUI builder products still require significant programming skills for their use, and so creating an attractive and distinctive interface requires the combination of design skills and programming skills. The end result is often either an unsatisfactory compromise or a prohibitive cost.
Additionally, user interface creation is time consuming even for those who do have the relevant programming skills. If the programmer is required to fully define all user interface controls, including their functions, their state models comprising a set of states and state transitions, and their appearance attributes, then a considerable amount of coding is involved. As well as the undesirable effort, there is an additional problem that interface control functionality may be inconsistent between different applications if the interface controls are separately coded each time. Clearly, if the function of interface controls which appear to be the same differs between applications, the end user is left confused and may fail to use the controls properly.
Computer program developers are often forced, by time or resource constraints, to compromise the completeness of the state models for controls they build, or sometimes omit elements of the expected behaviour through ignorance, oversight or misunderstanding. This not only leads to possible errors, but also contributes to user frustration with the interface and reduces the ease of use of the resulting application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a first aspect of the invention, a user interface builder tool is provided for use in the creation of computer system user interfaces, including:
a set of definitions of selectable user interface control types including, for each control type in said set, one or more predefined functions and a predefined state model defining a set of operational states and transitions between the states;
means for generating a user interface control of a selected type;
means for associating property attributes with one or more operational states of said generated user interface control.
A user interface builder tool according to the invention preferably includes means for selecting a control type from the set for inclusion of an instance of the selected control type within a user interface being created, the means for selecting including means for positioning the instance of the selected control type at a required position within the user interface.
The means for associating property attributes preferably includes means for user setting of property attributes for specific operational states, the interface builder tool providing a framework including mechanisms for associating such attributes with states of a control.
The provision of predefined functionality and a predefined state model for each of a plurality of user interface controls, together with means supporting user setting of attributes and means for associating such attributes with specific states of a control, greatly simplifies the task of user interface creation and facilitates the achievement of functional consistency of user interface controls across different applications and Web sites.
The predefined state model for each control type preferably defines a comprehensive set of operational states which the interface creator (i.e. the person creating an interface using the present invention) can select from, such that the creator can implement different levels of complexity for a given type of interface control according to the desired effect in the interface being created. Either the comprehensive set of states or a subset of these states may be presented.
Property attributes which may be set for an instance of an interface control using the means for setting attributes according to a preferred embodiment of the invention include the behavioral style of the control instance (i.e. how many distinct states are implemented) and property attributes for particular states including media such as: images; animation sequences using sets of images; sound clips; and mouse pointer images. The invention according to this embodiment thus provides great flexibility in the setting of property attributes of controls (which are the non-functional, appearance attributes) while the functional aspects (the state model and the function of the control) are predefined.
Further embodiments of the invention support use of additional media, for example text to be used for text-to-speech synthesis, and video clips. The invention according to a preferred embodiment thus provides an open architecture or framework which does not constrain use of different types o
Clark David
Donnelly Vanessa
Englefield Paul Jonathan
Roberts David John
Smith Andrew John
August Casey P.
Bautista X. L.
Bayerl Raymond J.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Scully Scott Murphy & Presser
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