Hierarchical Navigation Bar for Efficient Value Range Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for navigating through ranges of values on touch-sensitive surfaces are cumbersome and inefficient, placing a significant cognitive burden on users and wasting energy, particularly in battery-operated devices.
Innovation Solution
A multifunction device with a touch-sensitive surface displays a navigation user interface featuring a navigation bar with unit and subunit regions, allowing users to efficiently navigate through values by selecting and updating content areas based on inputs, including multipart gestures that enable seamless transitions between ranges of values.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional mouse-based scrolling methods are used to navigate through a large range of values, then navigation coverage is comprehensive, but the operation becomes tedious and creates significant cognitive burden on the user
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation interface is segmented into hierarchical levels (e.g., decades, years, months, days for date navigation). Users can navigate at different granularities by selecting different segment levels, allowing rapid jumps across large value ranges while maintaining precision when needed. This segmentation eliminates the need for sequential scrolling through every intermediate value.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dimensional navigation where users can move between different hierarchical dimensions (e.g., from day-level to month-level navigation). This adds a temporal or hierarchical dimension to the navigation, transforming a one-dimensional scrolling problem into a multi-dimensional navigation task that can be completed more efficiently.
2Reliability
If conventional sequential navigation methods are used, then all values in the range can be accessed, but energy is wasted due to prolonged operation time
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating and displaying multiple navigation levels and options before the user actually needs to navigate. The hierarchical structure is prepared in advance, allowing users to immediately jump to relevant time scales or value ranges without sequential processing, thereby reducing overall operation time and energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation system uses periodic action by allowing users to switch between different navigation granularities (e.g., switching between viewing individual days versus viewing months). This periodic switching between different levels of detail allows comprehensive access to all values while minimizing the time spent at each level, thus reducing overall energy consumption.
3Measurement precision
If detailed navigation controls are provided for precise value selection, then navigation precision is improved, but the interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation interface is dynamic, automatically adjusting its granularity and level of detail based on the user's current position and context. When users are near boundary values or making coarse adjustments, the interface displays broader time scales or value ranges. When users are making fine adjustments, the interface automatically zooms in to show more precise increments, thereby providing precision when needed without constant complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the navigation interface have different levels of detail and control options. The interface applies local quality by showing detailed controls only in the currently relevant portion of the value range, while other portions show summarized or coarser information. This allows precise navigation at the focal point without overwhelming the user with unnecessary complexity elsewhere in the interface.
Data Source
AI summary
A multifunction device displays a navigation user interface that includes: a navigation bar having a plurality of unit regions and a plurality of subunit regions. Each of the unit regions represents a range of values. Each subunit region represents a subset of a respective range of values. The navigation user interface also includes a content area for displaying content associated with subunit regions. In response to detecting an input that selects a respective subunit region, the multifunction device updates the content area in accordance with the respective selected subunit region. In response to detecting an input that selects a respective unit region, the multifunction device updates the navigation bar to include subunit regions in accordance with the selected unit region and updates the content area in accordance with at least one of the subunit regions in the updated navigation bar.