Tile-Based Game Interface Sorting by Recency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional user interfaces for accessing games lack effective features for organizing and facilitating rapid and efficient access to games and related information.
Innovation Solution
A user interface method that displays a scrollable band of tiles, where each tile represents a game, sorted by recency of use and download, with social network recommendations and commercial suggestions, allowing users to access metadata and related games.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If games are organized using conventional desktop icons or menu navigation, then users can access installed games, but the organization lacks effectiveness for rapid and efficient access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the game library into discrete visual tiles arranged in a grid layout, where each tile represents a game with its cover art and metadata. This segmentation allows users to quickly scan and identify games visually rather than navigating through hierarchical menus, thereby improving access efficiency while maintaining ease of operation through intuitive visual organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from traditional one-dimensional menu lists to a two-dimensional grid display of game tiles. This dimensional change enables users to perceive game information at a glance through spatial arrangement, significantly enhancing both access speed and organizational effectiveness by utilizing visual perception capabilities.
2Ease of operation
If a scrollable band of tiles is implemented to display games, then visual access is improved, but the interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal tile-based interface that serves multiple functions: displaying game covers, showing metadata, enabling scrolling navigation, and providing selective visibility options. This multi-functional design consolidates various interface elements into a single unified structure, improving visual access while actually reducing overall interface complexity through functional integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface employs automatic sorting algorithms that organize game tiles based on user behavior patterns such as recently played games, frequently accessed titles, and personal preferences. This self-organizing capability reduces the need for manual interface configuration, thereby improving ease of operation without proportionally increasing device complexity.
3Speed
If games are sorted by recency of use and download, then access to frequently played games is accelerated, but the ability to find specific older games becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where the system continuously monitors user interactions with game tiles and dynamically adjusts the sorting order. Recently accessed games are automatically moved to prominent positions, while maintaining the ability for users to search and filter by other criteria. This feedback-driven dynamic organization accelerates access to frequently played games while preserving searchability through multiple access pathways.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface performs preliminary organizational actions by pre-sorting games based on predicted user needs (recently played, frequently accessed, newly downloaded) before user requests. This preliminary arrangement optimizes access speed for anticipated queries while maintaining underlying metadata that enables efficient searching and filtering for specific older games when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for employing a user interface to facilitate user access to games. The example method includes displaying a band of plural adjacent tiles, wherein each tile represents a game, and wherein the band is scrollable in response to a specific user input; and arranging adjacent tiles based on a sorting rule, wherein the sorting rule includes arranging each tile according to a time of use and/or a time of download of a game associated with each tile. In a more specific embodiment, the method further includes illustrating, via the adjacent tiles, one or more games corresponding to one or game recommendations obtained in response to accessing a social network associated with a user of the user interface. Menu selections can allow access to recommendations; access to related games; access to games based on social network usage, and so on.