Touchscreen Reference Designator Zoom and Scroll
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touchscreen reference designators are often too small for accurate selection on small electronic device screens, leading to accidental multi-touch issues and incorrect guesses by the device about user intent.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a zoom and scroll functionality for reference designators on touchscreens, allowing users to magnify selected designators and their surroundings for easier selection and navigate through content lists more accurately.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the reference designator listing includes many reference designators to enable comprehensive navigation, then the navigation functionality is improved, but the reference designators become too small for accurate selection on small screens
Solution Approach 1:
The reference designator listing is divided into multiple pages, with each page displaying a subset of reference designators. Users can navigate between pages using pagination controls, allowing comprehensive navigation while maintaining readable, selectable sizes for individual designators on each page.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a single-dimensional flat listing to a multi-dimensional paginated structure. By adding the dimension of page navigation, the system can display fewer designators per page (improving selectability) while still providing access to all designators through multiple pages (maintaining comprehensiveness).
2Ease of operation
If the reference designators are made larger for easier selection, then the ease of operation is improved, but the number of reference designators that can be displayed on the screen is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The full set of reference designators is segmented across multiple pages, allowing the system to display only a manageable number of designators per page at larger, more selectable sizes, while still providing access to the complete set through pagination.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the number of designators displayed per page based on screen size and user needs. Users can interact with the system to navigate between different page sizes or view modes, optimizing the balance between quantity displayed and ease of selection for their specific device and situation.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus, method and computer program product are provided for manipulating a reference designator listing displayed in association with an ordered content list. When the user touches the touchscreen proximate the location at which at least one reference designator is displayed, the electronic device may not only jump to the portion of the content list corresponding to the reference designator assumed to have been selected, but also zoom the reference designator listing so that the assumed selected reference designator, and one or more surrounding reference designators, are larger and can be more easily selected. In addition, by touching the touchscreen at a location at which the magnified reference designator listing is displayed and moving his or her finger, or other selection device, in some direction within the reference designator listing, the user may scroll the reference designator listing, so that a different set of magnified reference designators is displayed.