User interface for a computing device

Abstract

There is disclosed a smartphone, tablet or other computing device comprising: (a) a touch sensitive display; (b) one or more processors; (c) computer memory; (d) one or more computer programs stored in the computer memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors and including instructions for displaying a welcome screen with a pictorial infographic or a data visualization that graphically represents each of a number of variables relating to the device or one or more of its users.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is based on, and claims priority to, GB Application No. 1300031.0, filed Jan. 2, 2013; GB Application No. 1302901.2, filed Feb. 19, 2013; GB Application No. 1304696.6, filed Mar. 15, 2013; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 788,842, filed Mar. 15, 2013, the entire contents of each of which being fully incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates to a user interface for a computing device; in particular a touch-based device such as a smartphone or tablet.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]Today, we use many different types of computing devices (such as TVs, laptops, tablets, phones). Their interfaces can be very different, even when from the same company. This makes it harder for users to transition rapidly between these types of devices; it requires users to learn new ways of interacting with these devices, which can be frustrating, es...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0031]A longer swipe will select the nearest application on the launcher (i.e. the application for the icon closest to the touch path of the user's finger, plus the Home Screen icon), and moving the contact or touch point up and down allows the user to select a particular application other than the one closest to their finger when they crossed the edge initially; an app which has been chosen (but not yet actually selected) will typically be shown with a larger icon that its neighbouring icons. This approach allows for fluid selection of an app to launch or switch to on the Launcher. Releasing the touch over a chosen icon for a specific app will select that application.

[0032]Pausing over an icon in the Launcher in the ranged gesture will show the Quicklist of that application, allowing the ranged gesture to bifurcate and pursue the items in that Quicklist. This allows for fluid access to a particular item in a particular application Quicklist in a single gesture starting with the edge swipe. A Quicklist for an application is a specific feature in an app that enables a user to rapidly access a feature or function or control for that app. For example, if the app is an e-mail messaging app, then the Quicklist could be to start composing a new e-mail message.

Problems solved by technology

This makes it harder for users to transition rapidly between these types of devices; it requires users to learn new ways of interacting with these devices, which can be frustrating, especially for users who are less technically sophisticated, or are simply less willing to invest time and effort into learning new interaction skills.

It also makes the process of designing these types of devices slower and riskier than necessary, since new interaction design approaches have to be conceived for each new type of device.

And it makes it more difficult for developers to write applications for each of the devices, because they cannot reuse very much of their software for each different form factor.

In part, this inefficiency arises because the underlying operating systems across these various kinds of devices are not common or shared; further, if one takes a user interface designed for a large device, such as a laptop, and presents it on a smartphone, the result is unusable—the challenges facing interaction designers working with the small screen of a typical smartphone are very considerable.

Overall, the interaction design problems creating a single unified family of interfaces that (a) enables fast one-handed operation of a smartphone and (b) will scale effectively from smartphone to tablet, where two-handed touch interaction is typical, (c) scales smoothly to accommodate keyboard and pointer input typical of a PC, and (d) scales to a TV form that is usable with a simple remote control, are very considerable and have not been successfully solved until now.

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