Measuring UI Responsiveness via Actionable Control Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing monitoring tools fail to accurately measure user interface responsiveness, as they often rely on network transactions or complete UI rendering time, which do not accurately reflect user-perceived performance, and do not distinguish between frequently and rarely interacted UI controls.
Innovation Solution
Measuring UI responsiveness by identifying 'actionable' controls through crowd-sourced user interaction data, determining the time when these controls become responsive after user interaction, and using this metric as a key performance indicator (KPI) for user interface performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If monitoring tools measure complete UI rendering time, then they can track overall application performance, but they fail to accurately reflect user-perceived performance since users can interact with partially loaded UI
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the UI rendering process by identifying and tracking individual actionable controls separately from the complete UI rendering. Instead of measuring the entire UI as a single unit, the system divides the UI into discrete actionable elements (buttons, links, form fields) and measures when each becomes interactive, providing granular responsiveness data that reflects actual user experience.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by determining UI responsiveness before complete rendering is finished. The system identifies when enough actionable controls are available for meaningful user interaction, even if the entire UI is not yet fully rendered. This allows responsiveness measurement to occur at a partial completion state that better reflects user-perceived performance.
2Measurement precision
If monitoring tools track all UI controls, then they can comprehensively measure UI performance, but they cannot distinguish between frequently and rarely interacted controls
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating between various types of UI controls based on their interaction frequency and user importance. Actionable controls are identified and weighted differently from non-actionable elements, and frequently interacted controls are prioritized in measurements. This allows the system to focus measurement resources on the most user-relevant UI elements rather than treating all controls equally.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and isolates actionable controls from the broader UI control set. By identifying and separating the subset of controls that users actually interact with (buttons, links, form fields) from other UI elements, the system can focus measurement efforts on these extracted elements, reducing complexity while improving measurement relevance.
3Measurement precision
If monitoring tools rely on network transactions, then they can track application performance, but they do not accurately measure user interface responsiveness since network activity does not directly correlate with UI interactivity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism that bridges network transaction data and UI state information. Rather than directly correlating network activity with UI responsiveness, the system uses this intermediary layer to translate and reconcile the two data sources, allowing accurate determination of when actionable controls become interactive even when network transactions occur asynchronously or independently of UI state changes.
Data Source
AI summary
Example embodiments relate to measuring user interface (UI) responsiveness related to a UI of an application running on a computing device. An example method may include accessing a list of actionable controls, where the list indicates at least one UI control of the UI as being actionable. The method may include detecting a user interaction when a user interacts with a UI control of the UI. The method may include determining a list of change controls. The change controls are UI controls that change, refresh or load in response to the user interaction, which will ultimately be displayed on a next screen of the UI after the user interaction, and which are also on the list of actionable controls. The method may include determining a UI responsive time based on the list of change controls.