Process Relationship Management User Interface

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users are often unaware of related processes that may be interrupted when closing an application, leading to undesirable interruptions and potential loss of unsaved work due to the lack of clear process relationship management in computing devices.

Innovation Solution

A user interface is provided that displays an integrated view of running processes and their relationships, offering visual indications of dependencies and status messages, allowing users to manage processes effectively by closing related processes together or handling unsaved work scenarios.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a user closes an application without awareness of related processes, then the operation is simple and quick, but unintended processes may be terminated causing data loss

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of closing applicationVSAvoidreliability of process management

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary identification of related processes before the user closes an application. By detecting parent-child process relationships in advance and displaying them through visual indicators (e.g., colored icons, relationship lines), the system enables users to make informed decisions about process closure, preventing unintended data loss while maintaining operational simplicity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides feedback to users by displaying visual indicators that show which processes are related and will be affected by closing actions. This feedback mechanism allows users to see the consequences of their actions before executing them, thereby improving reliability without significantly complicating the closing operation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Loss of information

If the system tracks and displays all process relationships, then user awareness of process dependencies improves, but the user interface complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinformation about process relationshipsVSAvoidcomplexity of user interface

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of displaying all process relationships uniformly, the system applies local quality by using specific visual indicators (such as colored icons, relationship lines, or hierarchical grouping) only where processes are related. This selective visualization approach maintains interface simplicity while effectively communicating process dependencies, preventing information overload

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system adds a visual dimension to process management by displaying relationships through spatial arrangements, color coding, or graphical connectors in the user interface. This dimensional approach to information presentation conveys complex process relationships intuitively without requiring additional interface elements or complicating the basic structure

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentUS9201687B2User interface for process relationship management

Publication Date: 2015.12.01 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Various embodiments for process relationship management are described. In at least some embodiments, a user interface is presented that provides an integrated view of processes that are running on a computing device and relationships between the processes. For example, the user interface can display a visual indication that a first process is related to a second process and that if a user closes the first process, the second process will also close as a result. Further to one or more embodiments, the user interface can display status messages regarding processes, such as that a process is not responding to a request to close or that a process is waiting on user input.