State-Based History Interface for Complex Interaction Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
User interfaces often struggle to effectively record, navigate, and communicate complex sequences of interactions, leading to difficulties in recalling previous states, comparing interface states, and understanding interaction histories due to destructive history stacks and undifferentiated interaction histories.
Innovation Solution
A system that captures and represents user interactions as a state-based history, allowing users to visualize and navigate interaction paths, merge states, and provide intelligent state suggestions, while enabling bookmarking and navigation through a history board that displays interaction paths and successor states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a history stack is used to record user interactions, then the user can navigate to previous interface states, but the history becomes destructive and loses complete interaction information
Solution Approach 1:
The interaction history is segmented into discrete states, where each state represents a complete interface configuration at a specific point in time. This segmentation allows the system to preserve complete interaction information while enabling efficient navigation between states without the destructive limitations of traditional stacks.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of modifying the original history stack, the system creates copies of interface states to preserve complete interaction information. Each state is stored as a complete snapshot, allowing users to navigate and compare states without losing original interaction data.
2Loss of information
If a history list visually represents all interaction states, then users can navigate and compare states, but the history becomes excessively large and difficult to navigate
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and displays only the most relevant interaction states in the visual history list, rather than showing every single state. This extraction approach maintains complete interaction history in the background while presenting a simplified, navigable view to users.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements partial display of history states by showing a curated subset of states in the visual interface. This partial action approach reduces navigation complexity while preserving complete interaction information for when users need to access it.
3Loss of information
If the system stores every interface state created through user interactions, then complete interaction history is maintained, but storage requirements become excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges identical or redundant interface states by recognizing when the same state is reached through different interaction paths. This merging reduces storage requirements by eliminating duplicate state representations while maintaining complete interaction history through path tracking.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards redundant state copies when identical states are detected, but recovers the ability to access those states through path references. This approach reduces storage consumption while preserving complete interaction history through efficient state management.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed implementations can provide a state-based history based on capture, representation, and navigation of a user's exploratory interactions with a user interface of an application. States may be represented in a history board, and one or more states may form a path. As a user explores an application's user interface, the user may branch from a given path and/or return to a prior state. Displaying a visual indication of states and a relationship of those states within a given path to states in other paths, provides a much improved user experience.