Intelligent Drag-and-Drop Designer with Auto-Placeholder Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current design tools for creating and designing workflow processes and electronic forms are rudimentary, cumbersome, and lack built-in intuition, leading to user frustration and errors due to the need for precise placement of actions on a design canvas.
Innovation Solution
An intelligent drag and drop designer system that automatically senses placeholders, visually emphasizes the correct location for action placement, and automatically positions selected actions into predicted placeholders upon release, enhancing user experience and reducing errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If current design tools require precise manual placement of actions on a design canvas, then placement accuracy can be achieved, but user frustration and errors increase due to the tedious and challenging nature of the process
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs automatic placeholder sensing and position prediction without requiring manual intervention. The design tool intelligently determines the correct placement location by analyzing the drag path and canvas elements, thereby serving itself rather than requiring continuous user guidance for precise placement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the visual emphasis parameters of placeholders based on their proximity to the dragged action. By changing the emphasis level (visual highlighting) according to spatial parameters, the system guides users to the correct placement location without requiring precise manual positioning.
2Productivity
If design tools provide more features and intelligence for automatic placeholder sensing and visual emphasis, then ease of use and productivity improve, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and prepares visual emphasis indicators for potential placeholder locations before the user completes the drop action. By performing these sensing and prediction actions in advance during the drag phase, the system streamlines the final placement process without adding significant complexity to the overall workflow.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously provides visual feedback by emphasizing placeholders that are potential drop targets based on the current position of the dragged action. This real-time feedback mechanism guides users intuitively, improving productivity while keeping the system relatively simple by using straightforward visual cues rather than complex controls.
3Ease of operation
If the system provides visual emphasis for multiple alternative placeholders, then user intuition and ease of placement improve, but information overload and user confusion may increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies visual emphasis selectively to specific placeholders based on their relevance to the current dragged action. By varying the emphasis level locally for different placeholders rather than uniformly highlighting all possibilities, the system maintains information clarity while guiding users to the most appropriate placement locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system emphasizes only the most relevant alternative placeholders rather than all possible placement locations. By providing partial emphasis on the top candidates based on the drag path and canvas context, the system avoids overwhelming users with too much information while still providing sufficient guidance for intuitive placement.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are provided for a design tool with built-in intelligence that automatically senses the location of one or more placeholders for selectable actions when designing a form or workflow. The design tool intuitively determines which placeholder should logically be used next; visually emphasizes, when an action is selected, the location and designation of the placeholder predicted to be used next; visually emphasizes alternative placeholders relevant to the position of the selected action by detecting minor changes in the position of the selected action; and automatically positions the selected action into the predicted or selected placeholder when the action is released.