Edge Gesture Navigation for Touch-Sensitive Surfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for navigating between user interfaces on electronic devices with touch-sensitive surfaces are cumbersome, inefficient, and energy-intensive, leading to distracting transitions and reduced user experience, especially in battery-operated devices.
Innovation Solution
Implementing methods that display multiple user interface representations in a stack, allowing for intuitive gestures such as drag and intensity-based interactions to efficiently switch between interfaces, reducing the need for multiple inputs and conserving power by optimizing transition speeds and interface changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional user interface navigation methods are used, then users can switch between interfaces, but the transitions are abrupt and distracting, reducing user experience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic transition animations where user interface representations move smoothly between positions rather than abrupt switches. The system dynamically adjusts the position and visibility of UI representations during transitions, creating fluid motion that reduces distraction and improves user experience while managing complexity through programmed animation sequences.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a spatial dimension to interface transitions by displaying multiple user interface representations in a stack arrangement with different positions and offsets. Transitions occur through movement along spatial dimensions rather than instantaneous switches, adding visual depth and smoothness to the navigation experience.
2Productivity
If conventional navigation methods are used, then users can switch between interfaces, but multiple inputs are required making navigation cumbersome and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent displays multiple user interface representations in advance in a stack arrangement, so that when a user initiates a transition gesture, the target interface is already prepared and visible in the stack. This preliminary display of multiple interfaces eliminates the need for multiple sequential inputs, allowing users to navigate efficiently by selecting from pre-loaded options.
Solution Approach 2:
The touch-sensitive surface accepts multiple types of gestures (drag, swipe, tap) that can all trigger interface transitions, making the navigation system versatile and reducing the need for specialized input methods. The same interface stack serves multiple functions: displaying available interfaces, indicating transition targets, and responding to various gesture types.
3Loss of energy
If conventional transition methods are used, then interfaces can switch between states, but the process takes longer than necessary wasting energy in battery-operated devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements accelerated transition animations that quickly move user interface representations from their current position to the target position in the stack. By optimizing the animation speed and duration, the system completes transitions faster than conventional methods while still maintaining smooth visual effects, thereby reducing both transition time and energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts transition parameters such as animation duration, speed, and interpolation curves based on the specific transition context. By optimizing these parameters, the system achieves the minimum necessary transition time for user comfort while minimizing energy consumption, particularly in battery-operated devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is performed at an electronic device with a display, a touch-sensitive surface, and one or more sensors to detect intensity of contacts. The method includes displaying, on the display, a user interface for an application; detecting an edge input that includes detecting a change in a characteristic intensity of a contact proximate to an edge of the touch-sensitive surface; and, in response to detecting the edge input: in accordance with a determination that the edge input meets system-gesture criteria, performing an operation that is independent of the application, wherein: the system-gesture criteria include intensity criteria; the system-gesture criteria include a location criterion that is met when the intensity criteria for the contact are met while the contact is within a first region relative to the touch-sensitive surface; and the first region relative to the touch-sensitive surface is determined based on one or more characteristics of the contact.