Touchscreen Map Interface Gesture Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional user interfaces for portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, are often complex and inflexible, making it difficult for users to easily interact with multifunction devices due to the need to memorize key sequences and menu hierarchies, which hampers the use of mapping applications.
Innovation Solution
A portable multifunction device with a touch-sensitive display and graphical user interface that allows users to interact primarily through finger contacts and gestures, providing intuitive access to features like maps, directions, telephoning, and other functions by displaying lists of bookmarked locations, recent queries, and contacts, and sending location data to remote computers for routing information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If physical pushbuttons and complex menu systems are used to provide multiple functions, then device functionality increases, but user interface complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces physical pushbuttons and mechanical menu navigation with a touch-sensitive display that responds to finger gestures. This substitution eliminates the need for physical buttons while providing a more intuitive interface where users can directly interact with visual elements on the screen through tapping, sliding, and other natural hand movements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional button presses to multi-dimensional touch interactions on the display surface. Users can interact with the interface across the entire screen area, utilizing spatial positioning, gesture direction, and touch pressure to navigate complex functions without dealing with hierarchical menu structures.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the number of functions in portable devices increases, then device versatility improves, but user interface complexity increases making interaction difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The touch-sensitive display serves as a universal interface for all device functions including mapping applications, telephoning, messaging, and media playback. A single touch interface handles diverse operations that would otherwise require multiple specialized controls, simplifying the overall user experience while maintaining full functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The user interface dynamically adapts its layout and controls based on the active application and user context. The mapping application, for example, can adjust its interface elements based on whether the user is viewing a map, entering directions, or selecting points of interest, providing optimal interaction for each function without requiring separate interfaces.
3Volume of moving object
If small screens are used in handheld devices, then device portability improves, but user interface interactability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The mapping application interface is segmented into distinct interactive zones and elements that can be independently accessed. Key functions like map viewing, direction input, and location selection are divided into separate touch-sensitive areas, allowing users to interact with specific features without needing to navigate through the entire screen or deal with cramped controls.
Data Source
AI summary
A device has a touch screen display configured to display a map application, which is configured to separately display a list of bookmarked locations, a list of recent queries, and a list of contacts. In response to detecting a finger gesture on an input icon associated with a search term input area, the map application displays at least one of the list of bookmarked locations, the list of recent queries, and the list of contacts. In response to detecting a finger gesture on a bookmarked location, an area corresponding to the bookmarked location is displayed on a digital map. In response to detecting a finger gesture on a recent query, one or more results corresponding to the recent query are displayed on a digital map. In response to detecting a finger gesture on a contact, an area associated with the contact is displayed on a digital map.