Mobile App Blueprint Generation via UI Element Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is no automated way for users to analyze and create a blueprint of unfamiliar mobile apps, revealing their user interface and functional properties, leading to inefficient usage and lack of discovery of features and functions.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that analyze a mobile app using a processor and memory to determine user interface configurations, detect elements, match functions with a hierarchy of elements, and output a blueprint showing categories and occurrences of elements, enabling users to understand app features and functions automatically.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If users manually learn app features through usage or documentation, then they can understand app functions, but it requires significant time and effort
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a blueprint copy of the mobile application's structure and features, allowing users to understand app functionality by examining the generated blueprint rather than manually exploring the app or reading documentation
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis of the mobile application to generate a comprehensive blueprint before the user needs to understand it, so when users access the blueprint, all feature information is already organized and ready
2Loss of information
If comprehensive app analysis is performed to reveal all features, then user understanding improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The analysis system breaks down the mobile application into discrete UI components and functional elements, analyzing each segment separately and then compiling results into a comprehensive blueprint, making the complex analysis task manageable
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces a blueprint as an intermediary representation between the mobile application and the user, where the complex analysis is performed on the app structure, and the results are presented in a simplified, organized format that users can easily understand
3Productivity
If automated analysis is implemented to generate app blueprints, then productivity improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically analyzing the mobile application's code and structure to generate a comprehensive blueprint without requiring manual intervention, thereby improving productivity while managing complexity through automation
Data Source
AI summary
An analysis of a mobile app is performed to determine each UI configuration in a set of UI configurations that is reachable in a possible use of the mobile app. A set of elements is detected that is used in the mobile app relative to a selected UI configuration from the set. A function performed by a selected element relative to the selected UI configuration is analyzed and matched with a function identified in a hierarchy of elements. The hierarchy is applicable to several mobile apps. A category of the function identified in the hierarchy is assigned to the selected element. The category and a numerosity of occurrences of the selected element in the mobile app are output in a blueprint of the mobile app.