Touchscreen App Resizing for Intuitive Multitasking Layouts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Handheld electronic devices with touch-sensitive displays face challenges in multitasking due to significant differences in screen size and input mechanisms compared to desktop or laptop computers, leading to complex and less user-friendly solutions.
Innovation Solution
A method for displaying multiple applications concurrently on a touch-sensitive display, allowing resizing, orientation changes, and gesture-based interactions to facilitate seamless multitasking, including detecting contacts and gestures to manage application display areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional solutions recreate the desktop computer interface on handheld devices, then multitasking capability is provided, but the solution fails to account for screen size differences and input mechanism differences, resulting in poor user experience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameters of the interface design by abandoning the desktop-like windowed environment in favor of a touch-optimized card-based interface. The card size, positioning, and interaction methods are specifically adapted to handheld screen dimensions and touch input characteristics, resolving the contradiction between providing multitasking capability and maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface is segmented into discrete cards representing different applications or information sets, rather than using traditional windows. These cards can be independently manipulated through touch gestures, allowing intuitive multitasking that respects the limitations of handheld device screens and touch input mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If complex input sequences and menu hierarchies are used for multitasking, then application switching is enabled, but the interface becomes even less user-friendly compared to desktop computers
Solution Approach 1:
The card-based interface allows users to directly manipulate application representations through intuitive touch gestures such as dragging, dropping, and stacking. This self-service approach eliminates the need for complex input sequences or nested menu hierarchies, enabling application switching while maintaining simplicity and user-friendliness.
3Weight of moving object
If the screen size of handheld devices is smaller than desktop computers, then portability is improved, but the ability to multitask effectively is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes the vertical dimension of the touchscreen by allowing cards to be stacked, overlaid, and positioned in three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional display. This dimensional approach enables multiple applications to be accessed and manipulated simultaneously on small handheld screens, compensating for the reduced screen real estate while maintaining portability.
Data Source
AI summary
In an exemplary method performed at an electronic device with a touch-sensitive display. The method includes concurrently displaying a first application and a second application on the touch-sensitive display. The method also includes detecting a first contact at a border between the concurrently displayed first and second applications. Immediately following detecting the first contact: detecting a gesture from a location of the first contact towards an edge of the touch-sensitive display. Upon detecting the gesture: selecting a fixed display area from a plurality of predefined fixed display areas for the second application; automatically resizing the second application to the selected fixed display area; and automatically resizing the first application to occupy substantially all of a remaining area of the touch-sensitive display.