Mobile Terminal Icon Movement Across Multiple Home Screens

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users face inconvenience when moving application icons from a full application screen to multiple home screens in mobile terminals, as they need to select and move each icon individually across multiple screens.

Innovation Solution

The mobile terminal selectively displays either the default home screen or the whole home screen based on the position of an icon within a control region during a long touch and drag operation, allowing for simultaneous or individual icon movement and arrangement across multiple home screens.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a user applies long touch to move an icon to a specific home screen, then the icon can be moved to that home screen, but the user must select each home screen individually which increases operation time and reduces efficiency

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveicon movement operationVSAvoidtime for moving icon to multiple home screens
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple home screen selections into a single operation by displaying thumbnails of all home screens in a toolbar. When a user long-touches an icon to move it, they can directly select the target home screen from the thumbnail toolbar without individually navigating through each home screen, thus combining multiple selection steps into one unified action.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a thumbnail toolbar as an intermediary element between the icon and the target home screen. This toolbar displays miniature representations of all home screens and allows the user to select the destination home screen directly during the icon movement operation, eliminating the need to manually navigate to each home screen individually.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Adaptability or versatility

If the system displays only the default home screen during icon movement, then the interface remains simple, but the user cannot efficiently move icons to non-default home screens

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveability to move icon to any home screenVSAvoidinterface complexity during icon movement
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the home screen display into two parts: the main display area showing the current home screen and a toolbar area showing thumbnails of all home screens. This segmentation allows the interface to maintain simplicity in the main area while providing comprehensive home screen selection capability through the compact thumbnail toolbar, thus achieving versatility without excessive complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent adds a new dimension to the interface by introducing the thumbnail toolbar as a separate visual layer or dimension. Instead of requiring the user to navigate through home screens sequentially in the main display area, the thumbnails provide a parallel dimension for selecting the target home screen, enabling efficient access to any home screen without complicating the main display.

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

3Productivity

If the user manually navigates through multiple home screens to move an icon, then each home screen can be accessed, but the operation becomes tedious and reduces productivity

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveicon movement efficiencyVSAvoidsimplicity of icon movement process
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-generating and displaying thumbnails of all home screens in the toolbar before the user initiates the icon movement. This allows the user to see all available destination home screens at once and select the target directly, eliminating the need to manually navigate through each home screen during the movement operation, thus improving both productivity and ease of operation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2703974B1Mobile terminal and application icon moving method thereof
Publication Date: 2018.08.15 LG ELECTRONICS INC
  • EP2703974B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2703974B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2703974B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

A mobile terminal and an application icon moving method thereof are provided. When a predetermined application icon is selected from a menu screen including a plurality of application icons and moved to a control region, a default home screen or the whole home screen stored in a memory may be selectively displayed according to a moved position of the corresponding icon, and also an icon-insertable position may be visually guided on the displayed home screen. This may allow a user to execute the movement of the application icon in an easy, convenient manner.