Method of providing graphic user interface for expressing progress of item

Abstract

The present specification provides a graphic user interface for displaying the progress of individual items in a computer graphic directory file system. According to a method disclosed in the present specification, in a directory-based file system with a hierarchical structure, the progress of each item is displayed in the form of an icon. Accordingly, the completion rates of subdirectory items are reflected and thus the overall progress of tasks can be extensively and effectively identified.

Description

A method for providing a graphical user interface for representing the progress of an item.

[0001] This specification relates to a graphical user interface, and more particularly to a graphical user interface for displaying the progress of individual items in a computer graphic directory file system.

[0002] When undertaking a project or business involving a collection of various unit tasks, the need for process and progress management for each unit arises. Traditionally, the construction industry has developed methodologies to determine the construction method for the various elements of a project and manage the corresponding schedules. In modern society, with many tasks and businesses now being computerized, these methodologies are being adopted or modified to better address the needs of the construction industry, particularly schedule management methods involving progress monitoring.

[0003] A representative methodology for process management is the Gantt chart. A Gantt chart represents the progress of each task at its completion point, with the completion rate set to 100%. However, while Gantt charts can provide information on the progress or completion rate for each task at a specific point in time, such as the current point in time, they lack the ability to identify which tasks influence each other in terms of their contingency relationships.

[0004] To compensate for these shortcomings of Gantt charts, the bar chart technique was developed. Figure 1 shows an example of a typical bar chart. A bar chart displays time on the horizontal axis, for example, months in Figure 1. Referring to Figure 1, the length of the bars indicates the duration of each task, and the progression from left to right reveals the relationships between tasks. Furthermore, it is possible to indicate the percentage of completion by filling in the bars in proportion to the progress. For example, item 1 takes two months from M+0 to M+1 and must be completed before item 2, and the outcome of item 1 can be shown as a correlation by drawing an arrow connecting to item 3.

[0005] While bar charts offer the advantage of tracking item progress over time, they also make it difficult to gauge the progress of various unit tasks at a given point in time. Therefore, the checklist depicted in Figure 2 can be utilized as a method for grasping the progress of multiple items at a glance. Referring to the checklist in Figure 2, the importance of each item (numbered 1 through n) is indicated, along with the completion rate for each item, making it convenient to grasp the progress of multiple items at a given point in time.

[0006] As mentioned above, although process management or schedule management methodologies have been developed and used, it is difficult to quickly and easily determine the completion rate of each item under the file system structure consisting of directories forming a tree structure, which is widely used in modern computer file systems. In particular, in directory-based file systems, also referred to as folders or catalogs, items containing files are typically displayed graphically in the form of icons as the use of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) has become widespread. Furthermore, the directory structure can include subdirectories under the tree structure, thus forming a hierarchy. In such modern directory-based file systems using GUIs, there is a need to quickly and easily determine the progress and completion status by considering the status of items in subdirectories as well as individual items.

[0007] This specification is intended to address the aforementioned problems and relates to a method for providing progress of individual items in a file system of a directory structure utilizing a GUI.

[0008] The problems to be solved by the present invention are not limited to the problems mentioned above, and other problems not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description below.

[0009] The present specification provides a method for providing a computer graphical user interface (GUI) that visually depicts the completion rate of one or more item nodes in a computer file system having a directory structure.

[0010] The method may include a step of displaying an icon in the form of a graphic gauge that is filled in proportion to the completion rate of the item node as the item node on the graphic shell.

[0011] In one aspect of the present invention, the gauge shape of the icon may be a circular gauge or a bar graph gauge.

[0012] In one aspect of the present invention, the item node has child item nodes in a lower layer of a tree structure, and the completion rate of the item node can be calculated based on the average of the completion rates of the child item nodes.

[0013] In one aspect of the present invention, the depth of the tree structure is 2 or more, the completion rate of an item node of the tree structure is calculated based on the average of the completion rates of the child item nodes, and the completion rate of each child item node can be calculated based on the average of the completion rates of the grandchild nodes.

[0014] In another aspect of the present invention, the average may be based on an arithmetic mean or a weight of each of the item nodes or each of the child item nodes.

[0015] In another aspect of the present invention, the item node may be a file or file directory in a form in which the completion rate attribute is exchangeable.

[0016] As one aspect of the present invention, a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium containing a computer-executable program including commands for executing the GUI providing method may be provided.

[0017] According to the embodiments disclosed in this specification, there is an effect of effectively displaying the progress of each item in the form of an icon in a directory-based file system in which a GUI is utilized.

[0018] In addition, according to the embodiments disclosed in this specification, the progress of each item can be expressed by considering the completion rate of items in subdirectories in a file system having a directory structure having a hierarchical structure.

[0019] Meanwhile, the effects that can be obtained from the present invention are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects that are not mentioned can be clearly understood by a person having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention belongs from the description below.

[0020] The following drawings attached to this specification illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention and, together with specific details for carrying out the invention, serve to further understand the technical idea of ​​the present invention. Therefore, the present invention should not be interpreted as being limited to matters described in such drawings.

[0021] Figure 1 illustrates a Gantt chart, a conventional technique for progress management.

[0022] Figure 2 is a checklist, a conventional technique for managing the progress of multiple items.

[0023] FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram showing the completion rate of items in a file system of a GUI-based directory structure according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment with added depth to the directory structure of Figure 3.

[0025] FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a GUI interface when the items illustrated in FIG. 4 are completed.

[0026] FIG. 6 illustrates a tree structure for explaining a method of calculating the completion rate of each item considering the hierarchical structure in a file system of a directory structure according to the present invention.

[0027] The technology disclosed in this specification can be applied to the implementation of a shell, an interface-providing program that implements various functions and services on a computer's operating system. However, the technology disclosed in this specification is not limited to this, and can be applied to any device or method to which the technical principles of the technology can be applied.

[0028] It should be noted that the technical terms used in this specification are merely used to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of the technology disclosed herein. Furthermore, unless specifically defined otherwise herein, the technical terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning generally understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the technology disclosed herein pertains, and should not be interpreted in an excessively broad or narrow sense. Furthermore, if a technical term used herein is an incorrect technical term that does not accurately express the scope of the technology disclosed herein, it should be replaced with a technical term that can be correctly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the technology disclosed herein pertains. Furthermore, general terms used herein should be interpreted according to their dictionary definitions or according to the context, and should not be interpreted in an excessively narrow sense.

[0029] Hereinafter, embodiments disclosed in this specification will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Regardless of the drawing numbers, identical or similar components are given the same reference numbers and redundant descriptions thereof will be omitted.

[0030] Additionally, when describing the technology disclosed in this specification, detailed descriptions of related known technologies will be omitted if they are deemed to obscure the gist of the technology disclosed in this specification. Furthermore, it should be noted that the attached drawings are intended solely to facilitate understanding of the concepts of the technology disclosed in this specification and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the technology.

[0031] FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a GUI (100) of a directory structure according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the GUI (100) may include directories including a root directory (110), a child directory (130), and a grandchild directory (140), an attribute display unit (160) that displays attributes of an item selected on the GUI (100), and a path display unit (120) that indicates the entire path including the upper path of the currently selected item. It can be seen that the path of 'Memo Document 1', which is an item of the currently selected lowest directory in the path display unit (120), is '◎Sales>Test>Memo Document 1'.

[0032] The root directory (110) may include one or more nodes that are at the top in depth in a tree-shaped hierarchy. Optionally or exemplarily, in FIG. 3, the owner who has ownership of the GUI (100) is displayed in the upper left corner of the root directory (110), but this is only for the convenience of identifying the name or account name of the current worker and is not an essential component of the present invention. The root directory (110) includes items included in the path of items selected by the owner (PagesX in FIG. 3), for example, a selected item (112) node indicated as 'Sales' in FIG. 3, and non-selected items (113) that are not selected items. In one embodiment, the selected item (112) may be visually indicated as being included in the path composed of the selected items (112, 131, 141) by, for example, shading or using a background color that is different from that of the non-selected item (113).

[0033] Continuing with reference to FIG. 3, the child directory (130), which is a subdirectory of the currently selected items in the root directory (110), includes a selected item (131) and a non-selected item (132). In FIG. 3, the name of the selected item (131) is Test, and in order to distinguish it from the non-selected items (132), it is displayed using shading or background inversion, just like in the root directory (110). The non-selected item (132) and the selected item (131) can be represented using icons in the GUI, where the items (131, 132) can include directories (or folders in the case of Microsoft's Windows system) or various types of files. In addition, when a subnode, for example, a specific item, has a child node, a triangle (▶) symbol can be displayed on the right side of each item to indicate that it has a child node of additional depth. The icon of a Test item contained in a path containing the currently selected item in a child directory (130) may be, for example, a graphic gauge-like shape that fills in proportion to the progress of a circular icon. As will be described in detail later, the progress of a specific item node may be calculated and displayed based on the progress of the specific item itself or other item nodes contained in its subdirectories.

[0034] The grandchild directory (140) of Fig. 3 includes the directory 'Folder 3' and other item nodes 'Memo Document 1' and 'Memo Document 2'. In Fig. 3, the currently selected item (141) is 'Memo Document 1', and the non-selected item is 'Memo Document 2'. As described above, it can be seen that a background color is applied to 'Memo Document 1' to prominently express that it is the selected item (141). Details of the final selected item node 'Memo Document 1' are exemplarily displayed on the far right of the GUI (100). The attribute display unit (160) may include, for example, a selection item progress display unit (161) for displaying (or setting) the progress of the selected item node. In addition, the attribute display unit (160) may include a sharing processing unit (162) that provides a function for conveniently sharing the selected item (141) with other owners or external parties (e.g., web, FTP, etc.), and may optionally include a selected item attribute display unit (163) that displays attributes of the selected item (141), such as type (whether it is a document, directory, or file type), size, creation time, update time, etc. Referring to FIG. 3, the attribute of the selected selected item (141) is a document file with a size of 122 KB, and the completion rate is 50%.

[0035] Hereinafter, a method of displaying the progress in the form of an icon will be described. In Fig. 3, the completion rate of memo document 1, which is a selection item (141), is 50%. Therefore, for example, memo document 1 is displayed as a circular icon, and by expressing it in the form of a gauge in which the inside of the circular icon is filled by half, the progress of memo document 1 can be quickly and conveniently identified even if the attribute display section (163) is omitted or the attribute display section (163) is not viewed. Meanwhile, in the upper directory (130) than the directory (140) of the selection item (141), there is 'Test' on the path of memo document 1, and 'Test' includes 'memo document 1' and 'memo document 2'. In the case of 'memo document 2', if, for example, the completion rate is 25%, the progress of 'memo document 2' is expressed so as to fill by 1 / 4 (= 25%) of the circular gauge, as illustrated in Fig. 3. Meanwhile, Test, which is an item on the upper directory (130) that includes 'Memo Document 1' and 'Memo Document 2', can be expressed in the form of a gauge by simply calculating the completion rate of Test as an arithmetic mean by giving the same weight of 1 / 2 to Memo Document 1 and Memo Document 2, for example, and using the number of items whose progress is expressed in Test as the denominator. That is, since Progress (Test) = 50% x 1 / 2 + 25% x 1 / 2 = 37.5%, the circular gauge of the Test icon in Fig. 3 is displayed in a form in which the average of the completion rates of its child item nodes, 'Memo Document 1' and 'Memo Document 2', is filled in, which is 37.5%. However, the calculation of the progress of the upper item node does not necessarily have to be calculated using the arithmetic mean, and this is an example for the convenience of understanding. For example, as described below with reference to FIG. 6, the progress of a higher item node in a hierarchical structure can be calculated by considering different weights of lower items or can be calculated in various ways.

[0036] Fig. 4 shows an embodiment in which one level of depth is added compared to the path expressed in the GUI (100) of Fig. 3. The configuration of the GUI (100) shown in Fig. 4 is generally similar to that described in relation to the GUI (100) of Fig. 3, but the difference is that a great-grandchild directory (150) is added. The entire path of Fig. 4 is '◎Sales>Test>Folder 3>Memo Document 2', which is displayed in the path display unit (120). The currently selected item in the directory of the lowest path of Fig. 4 is 'Memo Document 2', and the properties and progress of 'Memo Document 2' are the same as those described in Fig. 3. Here, 'Memo Document 2' belongs to 'Folder 3' as a directory with other items 'Memo Document 1' and 'Memo Document 3' which are in 'Folder 3' and have progress attributes, and the progress of Memo Documents 1, 2, and 3 are '0%', '50%', and '50%', respectively. Here, 'Memo Document 1' is an item for which progress has not been measured or assigned, so unlike 'Memo Document 2' and 'Memo Document 3', it is displayed as an arbitrary icon rather than a circular (or bar) gauge. In this case, 'Memo Document 1' may not be considered when calculating the progress of 'Folder 3', which is the parent item node to which Memo Documents 1-3 belong, because the progress has not yet been recorded in the progress attribute, as shown in FIG. 4. That is, the progress of 'Folder 3' in Fig. 4 is filled to 50%, which is the average of the progress of 'Memo Document 2' and 'Memo Document 3'. Of course, considering the progress of 0% of 'Memo Document 1', the arithmetic mean value is (50% + 50%) / 3 = 33.3% (1 / 3), so an embodiment may be possible in which the icon gauge of 'Folder 3' is displayed to be 1 / 3 full. However, in the embodiment of Fig. 4, each item, for example, an item node with a completion rate of 0, such as Memo Document 1, is expressed as an icon in the form of a graphic gauge, or is excluded from calculating the completion rate of the item of the upper node.Meanwhile, since the completion rate of 'Folder 3' in the grandchild directory (140) is 25%, and the completion rate of 'Memo Document 4', another item belonging to the same directory (140) and having a progress (completion rate) attribute, is 50%, the completion rate of 'Test', an item node in the child directory (130) above it, can be expressed in the form of a gauge icon filled with 25%, which is the average of Folder 3 and Memo Document 4.

[0037] FIG. 5 shows a modified embodiment regarding the case where the selected item nodes in the GUI (100) of FIG. 4 are completed. The components of FIG. 5 are mostly similar to those of FIG. 4, and the completion rate of 'Memo Document 2', which is a selected item (151) of the great-grandchild directory (150), which is the currently selected lowest-level item node, is 100%. Therefore, in this embodiment, the icon of Memo Document 2 is displayed with a symbol '√', which is a check mark indicating completion, instead of a gauge shape. As described above with respect to FIG. 4, 'Memo Document 1' has not yet had a value input for the progress attribute, and therefore is excluded from the calculation of the completion rate of 'Folder 3', which is an item of the upper directory (140) on the current path. Therefore, since 'Memo Document 2', which is the only item node with a progress attribute belonging to 'Folder 3', is completed, Folder 3 can also be expressed as a completed icon with a check mark symbol, and similarly, Test in the upper directory (130) can also be expressed as a completed symbol icon.

[0038] Figure 6 is a diagram explaining a method for calculating the completion rate in a directory of a tree structure. Here, the top layer is expressed as a, the lower layer as b, and the next lower layer as c. The root node a1 of the top layer has child nodes b1 and b2 of the lower layer, and for example, node b1 has grandchild nodes c1, c2, and c3 of the lowest layer. The completion rate (progress) of c1, c2, and c3 can be calculated for each node or assigned through an operation such as input. If the completion rate function is expressed as C() and the number of each argument is n(), then C(b1) = (C(c1) + C(c2) + C(c3)) x 1 / n(c1, c2, c3), and C(a1) = (C(b1) + C(b2)) x 1 / (n(b1, b2).

[0039] The present invention has been described with reference to the attached drawings and the components depicted therein. The illustrated components are not essential, and a mathematics learning aid device and a method for generating mathematics assessment problems using the mathematics learning aid device may be implemented with more or fewer components. These components may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.

[0040] In the above description, the steps, processes, or operations may be further divided into additional steps, processes, or operations, or combined into fewer steps, processes, or operations, depending on the implementation of the present invention. Furthermore, some steps, processes, or operations may be omitted as needed, and the order of the steps, processes, or operations may be switched.

[0041] At least a portion of a device (e.g., modules or functions thereof) or a method (e.g., operations) according to various embodiments may be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a program module. When the instructions are executed by a processor, the one or more processors may perform a function corresponding to the instructions. The computer-readable medium includes all types of recording devices that store data that can be read by a computer system. Computer-readable storage media / computer-readable recording media include hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic media (e.g., magnetic tape), optical media (e.g., compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD), magneto-optical media (e.g., floptical disks), hardware devices (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), or flash memory), and may also include those implemented in the form of carrier waves (e.g., transmitted via the Internet). In addition, program instructions may include not only machine language codes such as those generated by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter, etc. The above-described hardware devices may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform operations of various embodiments, and vice versa.

[0042] Modules or program modules according to various embodiments may include at least one or more of the aforementioned components, some of which may be omitted, or may further include other additional components. Operations performed by modules, program modules, or other components according to various embodiments may be executed sequentially, in parallel, iteratively, or heuristically. Additionally, some operations may be executed in a different order, omitted, or other operations may be added.

[0043] The term "a" as used herein is defined as one or more than one. Furthermore, the use of introductory phrases such as "at least one" and "one or more" in the claims, even if the same claim includes introductory phrases such as "at least one" and "one or more" and the ambiguous phrase "a," should not be construed to mean that the introduction of another claim element by the ambiguous phrase "a" limits any particular claim containing the introduced claim element to an invention containing only one such element.

[0044] In this document, expressions such as "A or B" or "at least one of A and / or B" may include all possible combinations of the items listed together.

[0045] Furthermore, those skilled in the art will recognize that the functional boundaries between the aforementioned operations are merely exemplary. Multiple operations may be combined into a single operation, a single operation may be divided into additional operations, and operations may be executed with at least partial temporal overlap. Furthermore, alternative embodiments may include multiple instances of a particular operation, and the order of the operations may be altered in various other embodiments. However, other modifications, variations, and alternatives are also possible. Accordingly, the detailed description and drawings should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

[0046] The phrase "may be X" indicates that condition X may be satisfied. It also indicates that condition X may not be satisfied. For example, a reference to a system that includes a particular component must also include scenarios where the system does not include the particular component. For example, a reference to a method that includes a particular action must also include scenarios where the method does not include the particular component. However, to take another example, a reference to a system that is configured to perform a particular action must also include scenarios where the system is not configured to perform the particular task.

[0047] Additionally, for example, the examples described above or portions thereof may be implemented as software or code representations of physical circuits or logical representations convertible to physical circuits, such as in any suitable type of hardware description language.

[0048] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to physical devices or units implemented with non-programmable hardware, but may also be applied to programmable devices or units capable of performing desired device functions by operating in accordance with appropriate program code, such as mainframes, minicomputers, servers, workstations, personal computers, notepads, personal digital assistants (PDAs), electronic games, automobiles and other embedded systems, mobile phones and various other wireless devices, generally referred to herein as 'computer systems'.

[0049] The system, apparatus or device referred to in this specification includes at least one hardware component.

[0050] Preferred embodiments of the technology of this specification have been described above with reference to the attached drawings. The terms and words used in this specification and claims should not be construed as limited to their conventional or dictionary meanings, but rather should be interpreted in their meanings and concepts consistent with the technical spirit of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed in this specification, and the present invention may be modified, altered, or improved in various forms within the spirit of the present invention and the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for providing a graphical user interface (GUI) that visually illustrates the completion rate of one or more item nodes in a computer file system having a directory structure, the method comprising the step of displaying an icon in the form of a graphic gauge that is filled in proportion to the completion rate of the item node as the item node on the directory.

2. In paragraph 1, A method of providing a GUI, wherein the gauge form of the above icon is a circular gauge or a bar graph gauge.

3. In paragraph 1, A method for providing a GUI, wherein the above item node has child item nodes in a lower layer of a tree structure, and the completion rate of the above item node is calculated based on the average of the completion rates of the child item nodes.

4. In paragraph 3, A method for providing a GUI, wherein the depth of the tree structure is 2 or more, the completion rate of an item node of the tree structure is calculated based on the average of the completion rates of its child item nodes, and the completion rate of each child item node is calculated based on the average of the completion rates of its grandchild nodes.

5. In paragraph 3, A method for providing a GUI, wherein the above average is an arithmetic average or a weighted average based on the weight of each of the item nodes or child item nodes.

6. In paragraph 3, A method for providing a GUI, wherein the above item node is displayed as an icon in the form of a graphic gauge only when the completion rate of the above item node or one or more of its child nodes is not 0.

7. In paragraph 1, A GUI providing method wherein the above item node is a file or file directory in the form of an exchangeable completion rate attribute.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium containing a computer-executable program including commands for executing the GUI providing method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

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