Treemap Tap Targets for Touch Interaction
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Solution Overview
Problem
User interaction with treemaps on touch devices is restricted due to inaccurate and cumbersome finger tapping on small rectangles, which are sized relative to each other, making it difficult to accurately select and interact with individual elements.
Innovation Solution
A computer system and method that displays user interactive regions with scalable tap sensitive targets, allowing for the grouping of smaller regions into expandable areas via tactile gestures, maintaining accurate size representation and enabling precise interaction by scaling and grouping regions based on their values.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If rectangles are sized relative to each other based on quantifiable measures, then the visualization accurately represents data proportions, but the rectangles become smaller than finger size making interaction inaccurate and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where the treemap is rendered at a higher resolution than the physical display pixels. This creates a virtual precision layer that allows accurate data representation while the physical touch interface maintains larger, more tappable areas. The intermediary resolution layer acts as a mediator between the small visual rectangles and the larger finger tap areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the resolution parameter of the treemap rendering independently from the physical display resolution. By rendering at a higher virtual resolution and then scaling down, the system maintains accurate proportional representation of data while creating larger effective tap targets. This parameter separation allows the visualization to maintain data accuracy while improving interactability.
2Ease of operation
If rectangles are made larger to improve finger tapping accuracy, then user interaction becomes easier, but the ability to display many detailed rectangles is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a resolution dimension to the display system. Instead of only adjusting physical rectangle sizes, it introduces a virtual resolution layer that allows many more rectangles to be rendered within the same physical space. This extra dimension enables both large tap targets and high quantity of displayable elements by decoupling visual density from physical size.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested structure where high-resolution virtual rectangles are nested within lower-resolution physical display areas. Multiple levels of detail can be nested within each other, allowing the system to display many rectangles with accurate proportions while maintaining larger effective interaction areas through the nesting of resolution layers.
3Loss of information
If high resolution is used to display many detailed rectangles, then data visualization detail is improved, but the physical tap target size becomes too small for accurate selection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the display system into two independent layers: a high-resolution virtual rendering layer for displaying detailed rectangles, and a lower-resolution physical interaction layer for finger tapping. This segmentation allows each layer to optimize for its specific function - the virtual layer maximizes detail while the physical layer ensures adequate tap target sizes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a rendering intermediary that translates high-resolution virtual coordinates to lower-resolution physical coordinates. This intermediary layer allows the system to maintain detailed visualization while mapping to larger physical tap areas, effectively mediating between the conflicting requirements of detail and interactability.
Data Source
AI summary
In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods are provided for displaying user interactive regions having corresponding tap sensitive targets for each of a plurality of scalable values representing a visualization context associated with each user interactive region while maintaining a size of each user interactive region and each corresponding tap sensitive target according to each scalable value associated therewith.