Spreadsheet Text Message Interaction for Small Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Interacting with spreadsheets on devices with small displays is cumbersome, requiring users to find and load workbook files and navigate to data entry locations, making data entry a tedious process.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing text messages to interact with spreadsheet objects, where text messages are parsed to perform operations such as data entry, updates, and requests within the spreadsheet, allowing association with cells, tables, charts, and other objects, and enabling the spreadsheet system to send updates or request information via text messages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users interact with spreadsheets on small display devices through traditional navigation methods, then the spreadsheet functionality is accessible, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to the tedious process of finding and loading workbook files and navigating to data entry locations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces text messages as an intermediary communication channel between the user and the spreadsheet system. Instead of directly navigating the spreadsheet interface on a small screen, users send text messages that are parsed and translated into spreadsheet operations. This intermediary layer abstracts the complex navigation and file management tasks, allowing users to interact with spreadsheets through a simpler, more familiar text-based interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical interaction model (clicking, scrolling, navigating through UI elements on a small display) with a text-based communication model. Users type text messages instead of manually navigating through multiple screens and menus. The system parses these text messages and automatically performs the necessary spreadsheet operations, substituting the manual mechanical interaction with an automated text-processing approach.
2Productivity
If users manually navigate to data entry locations in spreadsheets on small devices, then data can be entered, but the productivity deteriorates due to the cumbersome interaction process
Solution Approach 1:
Text messages serve as an intermediary that simplifies the data entry process. Instead of navigating to specific cells or ranges in the spreadsheet, users send text messages with the desired data. The system parses these messages, identifies the target spreadsheet and location, and automatically enters the data. This intermediary layer bridges the gap between simple text input and complex spreadsheet operations, improving both productivity and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring the spreadsheet environment and data entry paths. When a text message is received, the system has already prepared the necessary context (identified the workbook, located the target range, and set up the data entry mechanism). This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for users to perform navigation and setup actions during the actual data entry process, thereby improving productivity.
Data Source
AI summary
Text messages are used to interact with objects in a spreadsheet. For example, text messages may be used to enter/receive data in the spreadsheet. One or more text messages may be associated with a spreadsheet. Text messages may be associated with cells, tables, charts and other objects of the spreadsheet. When the spreadsheet receives a text message, the text message is parsed and information that is contained within the text message is used to interact with one or more objects within the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet may also generate and send text messages that provide information about the spreadsheet and/or request information to be entered within the spreadsheet. For example, the spreadsheet may send out an update of one or more values/objects within a spreadsheet and/or send a request within a text message requesting information to update a table.