Icon Management Interface for Mobile Terminal Screen Organization

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Solution Overview

Problem

The increasing number of icons on a mobile device's home screen leads to tedious user operations when moving icons between pages, as users need to manually drag and switch between multiple screens, making the process cumbersome and time-consuming.

Innovation Solution

An icon management method and apparatus that utilizes a dual-display interface, allowing users to move icons between screens within a single interface, enabling flick-based navigation and operations such as moving, creating, and deleting icons or folders, as well as adding or removing screens, to streamline icon management without the need for extensive screen switching.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If the quantity of icons on the home screen increases, then the user can access more applications, but the user operation becomes more tedious when moving icons between pages

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvequantity of iconsVSAvoidease of icon movement
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a new dimension to icon management by displaying multiple home screen pages simultaneously in a split-screen interface. Instead of moving between pages sequentially through page-turning operations, the system presents a comprehensive view of all pages in one interface, allowing users to select destination pages directly without intermediate navigation steps.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the home screen into multiple visible sections representing different pages, allowing users to manage icons across pages simultaneously. The interface divides the display into first and second display sections, each showing different home screen pages, enabling parallel operation on multiple pages at once.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Quantity of substance

If the quantity of icons on the home screen increases, then the user can access more applications, but the time required for icon management increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvequantity of iconsVSAvoidtime for icon management
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-displaying all home screen pages in the split-screen interface before the user initiates icon movement. This allows the user to immediately see all available destination pages and select the correct one without needing to navigate through pages sequentially, saving time on page-browsing and selection.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

By transitioning from sequential page navigation to a multi-page display interface, the system reduces the time required for icon management. Users can perform operations on multiple pages simultaneously rather than moving through pages one at a time, significantly reducing the total time spent on icon organization.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Ease of operation

If the user manually moves icons between pages, then the user can reorganize icons, but the operation becomes cumbersome when pages are separated by many screens

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of icon reorganizationVSAvoidcomplexity of page navigation
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the page navigation task by displaying multiple pages simultaneously in the split-screen interface. Instead of treating page navigation as a sequential process, the system divides the display into independent sections representing different pages, allowing users to perform reorganization operations across all pages at once without navigating through intermediate pages.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP3706400B1Icon management method and device
Publication Date: 2023.11.15 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3706400B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3706400B1 patent drawingFigure 2(a)
  • EP3706400B1 patent drawingFigure 2(b)

AI summary

An icon management method and apparatus are applied to an icon management process, relate to the field of terminal technologies, and can resolve a problem of tedious user operations in the icon management process due to a comparatively large quantity of pages on a home screen. The method includes: receiving an icon management operation from a user; displaying an icon management interface in response to the icon management operation; receiving an icon moving operation from the user; and displaying a selected icon in a second position in response to the icon moving operation. The icon management interface includes at least two display windows, a first display window is used to display a home screen of a terminal, and a second display window is used to display a newly added screen. The icon moving operation is used to instruct moving the selected icon from a first position to the second position, the first position is in a screen in the first display window, the second position is in a screen in the first display window or the second display window, and the first position is different from the second position.