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Inventions on Three Dimensional GUI - A TRIZ Based Analysis
Abstract
The graphical user interface has become popular because of its simplicity and user friendliness. The user can do very complex operations through GUI by simple pointer movements. One of its major drawbacks is that it consumes active display area. Every icon, every window and every other GUI element occupies some amount of screen space. It is desirable to display more GUI features within the limited amount of display screen.Adding another dimension to a graphical user interface can yield tremendous benefits such as improving aesthetics, data presentation, screen-space utilization and user friendliness. The user can easily locate the objects in a three-dimensional environment by using his spatial memory. Many people think that a three-dimensional GUI is the future of the current trend in the evolution of graphical user interface.
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One of the biggest drawbacks of the graphical user interface is that it consumes the active display area associated with the device. Whether the display screen is a part of a television, computer, or any other consumer device, the graphical user interface appears on the active area of the display screen. As a result the GUI masks a part of the display screen and the amount of information that can be viewed on the screen is reduced.
Ideally the GUI should offer all its features without blocking any part of the display screen. The features should be readily available and the user should not face any difficulty in searching them. Operating the GUI should require minimum amount of pointer movements.
This article analyses nine inventions from the US patent database from a TRIZ perspective. The analysis tries to draw the Ideal Final Result and illustrates how each of these inventions solves the contradictions in order to achieve specific aspects of the Ideal Final Result.
A typical user interface consists of several buttons, menus, windows, trees and other type of controls. The increased number of GUI elements and complexities of the GUI controls necessitate the user to acquire certain level of skill and efficiency in order to operate the GUI. There are many situations which further make the navigation difficult. Ideally the user should face no difficulties in navigating through the user interface. Any operation in the graphical user interface should require minimum pointer operations from the user (Ideal Final Result).This objective of a graphical user interface has led to several inventions trying to make the navigation simple and efficient. The article analyzes some inventions from US Patent database and illustrates how each of them has tried to solve different problems of navigation in a graphical user interface.
The modern software tools provide numerous graphic elements in their GUI, which demand more and more screen space. As the size of a display screen cannot be extended beyond a limit, it is typically seen as a constraint in a graphical user interface. Looking from a TRIZ perspective, the computer screen should display all the information that the user needs (Ideal Final Result). There are various methods of addressing the problem of screen space, some of which are, "using icons for windows", "the desktop metaphor", "the large virtual workspace metaphor", "multiple virtual workspaces", "overlapping windows" and "increasing dimensions" etc.There are many inventions on how to maximize the presentation of information on a graphical user interface. This article analyzes nine inventions from US Patent database from a TRIZ perspective illustrating how they solve the contradictions in order to achieve the desired result.
Aesthetics or "look and feel" is one of the most important features of any graphical user interface. Better aesthetics makes the interface user-friendlier and more popular. Better aesthetics helps the user to understand the meaning of various components and memorize the navigation paths. A better look and feel ultimately makes a GUI more efficient and effective. Various methods are adopted to improve the aesthetics of a GUI, such as, by using colors, using 3D graphics, using pictorial icons, using sound etc. It is important to provide links to all the features on the desktop or a quick access panel. But too many icons or buttons sometimes creates confusion. Hence it is important to restrict the temptation of putting everything on the first screen or load the rarely used buttons on the toolbar. One should ensure that the aesthetics of a GUI is not compromising with its accessibility and other important features. This article illustrates some inventions made on GUI aesthetics.
The graphical user interface (GUI) is now firmly established as the preferred user interface for end users in most situations. Just as decreasing hardware prices and increasing hardware capabilities made two-and-a-half dimensional (2 1/2 D) GUIs affordable in the early eighties and widespread in the ninetees, we believe declining hardware prices and increasing hardware capabilities will make three-dimensional (3D) GUIs possible and affordable in the near future. Three-dimensional GUIs raise many issues of design, metaphor and usability. In this paper we discuss elements of a prototype 3D GUI we are developing.
Methods, apparatus and data structures for providing a user interface, which exploits spatial memory in three-dimensions, to objects and which visually groups proximally located objects
US Patent 6414677, " Methods, apparatus and data structures for providing a user interface,
which exploits spatial memory in three-dimensions, to objects and which visually groups
proximally located objects ", invented by Robertson et al., assignee Microsoft Corporation,
issued July 2002.
Background image with a continuously rotating and functional 3D icon
US Patent 6043818, " Background image with a continuously rotating and functional 3D icon ",
invented by Nakano et. el., assignee Sony Corporation, issued Mar 2000.
Method and apparatus for generating three dimensional effects in a two dimensional graphical user interface
US Patent 5864343, "Method and apparatus for generating three dimensional effects in a two
dimensional graphical user interface", invented by Naughton et al., assigned by Sun
Microsystems, Jan 99