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Contents
1. of icons and windows is well known in the art 0008 The file is the information packet that the user wishes to utilize create or modify each particular file has an associated name identifying the file Therefore any given file may be located in the information management system by knowing a file name an iconographic representation associated with the name or a window locator name All information files situated within a particular window are identified with that particular window s own identification location within the computer information management sys tem Therefore any particular file information can be retrieved knowing its particular identification name and its window name Accordingly the resulting screen display utilizing the Finder user interface may be broken down into multiple windows and graphic icons 0009 Another important element of this and other conventional user interfaces is a screen cursor The cursor allows direct user control over the user interface as described above The Finder user interface is comple mented with a mouse and a corresponding pointer which makes up the cursor control device The user has control over the mouse which is an electromechanical device that translates two dimensional mouse movement into a two dimensional screen position movement repre sented by for example a pointer or arrowhead The user contacts and directs the mouse When the mouse is moved fre2. one or more media drives 511 e g floppy disk hard disk or CD ROM and a display screen 512 0037 Having described exemplary computer systems in which user interfaces according to the present invention can be implemented the discussion now turns to a description of such user interfaces According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention a userbar is provided to the user interface which solves many of the problems described above with respect to conventional user interface tools and facilities by providing extensibility scalability and flexibil ity which are lacking in prior systems Dec 13 2007 Userbar Contents 0038 An example of the userbar according to the present invention can be seen in the user interface of FIG 6 Other examples are seen in subsequent figures which will be further described below Therein the userbar 600 includes a number in this example sixteen of tiles aligned along a bottom portion of a user interface the magnification level of which varies based on the position of the cursor 610 in a manner to be described below in the section entitled User bar Appearance The contents of the userbar 600 may represent a user selected or alternatively an application or operating system selected set of super favorite items i e items that the user has determined deserve greater ease of access than their broader collection of favorite items which could be numerous The straightforward con
3. the transition of other industries into a computer based information paradigm 0004 As a result in the early to mid 1980 s many new philosophies such as user friendly WYSIWYG and menu driven came to the forefront of the industry These concepts are particularly applicable to microcomputers also known as personal computers which are intended to appeal to a broad audience of computer users including those who previously feared and mistrusted computers An important aspect of computers which employ these concepts was and continues to be the interface which allows the user to input commands and data and receive results which is commonly referred to as a graphical user interface GUI 0005 success of this type of interface is evident from the number of companies which have emulated the desktop environment Even successful concepts however must con tinually be improved in order to keep pace with the rapid growth in this industry The advent of multimedia especially CD ROM devices has provided vast quantities of secondary storage which have been used to provide video capabilities e g live animation and video clips as regular components of application displays With these and other new resources at their disposal application designers and users alike demand additional functionality and greater ease of use from the desktop environment 0006 consider the challenges associated with continu
4. their asso ciated windows accessing control strip functionality navi gation to all types of uniform resource locators URLs and status and notification on running processes 0022 As mentioned above existing tools of this type such as taskbars and docks are constrained in one or more of at least two ways having a rigidly structured layout and being limited in the number of objects that they can repre sent in the available screen space With respect to layout the userbar according to the present invention is designed so that the organization of the userbar is in the hands of the user For example the tiles that represent the individual items in the userbar can be reorganized at will There is virtually no structure enforced on the user with the exception of two bookends which define boundaries of the facility 0023 With respect to screen space the userbar according to the present invention provides a method for scaling the entire contents of the object handling facility such that literally upwards of fifty objects or more can be accom modated in a single visible structure As the objects handled by the userbar become rather small e g due to the size set by the user or due to a large number of objects being added thereto it naturally becomes more difficult to distinguish between different tiles Accordingly exemplary embodi ments of the present invention provide a magnification effect also referred to herein as a
5. 2007 Sheet 1 of 6 US 2007 0288860 1 DOCUMENT 1 DOCUMENT 3 ee 58 DOCUMENT 2 DOCUMENT 4 FIG 1A PRIOR ART 75 20 FILE EDIT VIEW SPECIAL COLOR gt 5 FIG 1B PRIOR ART Patent Application Publication Dec 13 2007 Sheet 2 of 6 US 2007 0288860 1 200 210 300 Utilities gt FIG 3 PRIOR ART Patent Application Publication Dec 13 2007 Sheet 3 of 6 US 2007 0288860 1 01 402 403 404 RANDOM READ DATA ACCESS ONLY STORAGE MEMORY MEMORY DEVICE 4 PROCESSOR we DISPLAY DEVICE 40 ALPHA CURSOR SIGNAL NUMERIC CONTROL GENERATION INPUT DEVICE DEVICE DEVICE 5 406 7402 408 US 2007 0288860 1 Patent Application Publication Dec 13 2007 Sheet 4 of 6 9 94 aa 029 019 DF 009 auos 21 QAN A lt 2914 12965 US 2007 0288860 1 Patent Application Publication Dec 13 2007 Sheet 5 of 6 alqisia 9 MOUS 26 40 Ce 0 1055 3140 96 10 au 1925 10825 6 030 19314 29196 1K07 914 Patent Application Publication Dec 13 2007 She
6. 4 and 45 are calculated for each tile More specifically for each tile the distance d from the cursor 610 s position to the left edge of tile and the distance d from the cursor to the right edge of the tile are calculated as seen in FIG 8 c If the value of either d or d lies outside the range W W then the value is changed to the closest of W W Scaled values d and 4 are then calculated using the following sine functions 5 2 2 d Sxsine a 2xd gt W 3 Each tile is then redrawn between d and d having a size which is scaled equally in both width and height from the lower left hand corner by a factor 1 dy dy da d 4 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing is merely an illustrative example of a particular yet still exemplary embodiment by which a variable magnification effect according to the present invention can be imple mented Moreover although these exemplary embodiments describe user interfaces wherein the variable magnification effect is invoked when the cursor moves into the userbar 600 region 1 when the cursor crosses a border of one of the tiles residing in the userbar 600 those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the magnification effect can also be invoked earlier e g when the cursor moves to within some predetermined distance of one of the tile borders Userbar Functionality 0062 Having described examples of u
7. 402 coupled with the bus 400 for storing information and instructions for the processor 401 a read only memory 403 US 2007 0288860 Al coupled with the bus 400 for storing static information and instructions for the processor 401 a data storage device 404 such as a magnetic disk and disk drive or CD ROM drive coupled with the bus 400 for storing information and instructions a display device 405 coupled to the bus 400 for displaying information to the computer user an alphanu meric input device 406 including alphanumeric and function keys coupled to the bus 400 for communicating information and command selections to the processor 401 a cursor control device 407 coupled to the bus for communicating information and command selections to the processor 401 and a signal generating device 408 coupled to the bus 400 for communicating command selections to the processor 401 0035 The display device 405 utilized with the computer system and the present invention may be a liquid crystal device cathode ray tube or other display device suitable for creating images and alphanumeric characters and ideo graphic character sets recognizable to the user The cursor control device 407 allows the computer user to dynamically signal the two dimensional movement of a visible symbol cursor display screen of the display device 405 Many implementations of the cursor control device are known in the art including a trackball mouse joystick or sp
8. G 7 the cursor 610 now rests over the tile entitled 8 Some of the tiles surrounding 8 are also magnified while the Clock tile has returned to its unmagnified state and is now displayed at a default size setting The magnification effect can be canceled when the cursor leaves the content region of the userbar 600 as determined by the level of magnification being applied which level is user selectable as described below For example if the default size of the tiles is 64 pixels but the tile on which the cursor is currently posi tioned has been scaled up to 128 pixels due to the magni fication effect then this effect will not end until the cursor leaves the 128 pixel top boundary of the userbar 600 0057 Also seen in FIG 7 is an exemplary userbar settings screen 620 which permits the user to vary the tile size magnification characteristics and the show hide char acteristic of the userbar This feature of exemplary user interfaces according to the present invention will be described in more detail below 0058 With reference now to FIGS 8 8 4 a more detailed example of a variable magnification function according to the present invention will now be described Therein each tile is placed along a reference baseline 800 which may be located in any position and with any orien tation on the display As seen in FIG 8 a each tile has the same height h but may have different widths FIG 8 shows the defa
9. US 20070288860A1 19 United States a2 Patent Application Publication 10 Pub No US 2007 0288860 1 Ording et al 43 Pub Date Dec 13 2007 54 75 73 21 22 USER INTERFACE FOR PROVIDING CONSOLIDATION AND ACCESS Inventors Bas Ording Sunnyvale CA US Steven P Jobs Palo Alto CA US Donald J Lindsay Mountain View CA US Correspondence Address BUCHANAN INGERSOLL amp ROONEY PC POST OFFICE BOX 1404 ALEXANDRIA VA 22313 1404 US Assignee Apple Inc Appl 11 892 153 Filed Aug 20 2007 File Edit Image Loyer Select Filter View Window Related U S Application Data 63 Continuation of application No 09 467 074 filed on Dec 20 1999 Publication Classification 51 Int Cl 06 3 048 2006 01 Sore 715 779 57 ABSTRACT Methods and systems for providing graphical user interfaces are described To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the graphical user interface a userbar is established which includes a plurality of item representations To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar a magnification function can be pro vided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface UFO Newsletter 620 640 Patent Application Publication Dec 13
10. ality The image appearing on the tile can be for example either 1 a dynamically scaled representation of the actual window contents or 2 an appropriate image provided by for example the application such as the window s proxy icon For example a minimized Finder window might more appropriately be presented as a folder icon e g icon 620 in userbar 600 as opposed to providing a scaled image of the Finder window s content on the userbar 600 0042 In addition to applications documents and win dows many other types of items may reside on userbar 600 For example any type of system supported uniform resource locator URL file types can be placed on the userbar 600 including but not limited to file types having the extensions http ftp news mailto at afp and file Additionally developer defined preference or setting mod ules e g a slider control to adjust the computer s speaker volume can be added to the userbar 600 by the user Adding such preference or setting modules to the userbar 600 may be accomplished by for example dragging pre defined objects from the Finder to the bar 0043 According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention two items are permanent fixtures of the userbar 600 These items denoted by reference numerals 630 and 640 act as bookends that contain the contents of the userbar 600 between them Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the selection of specific tiles t
11. d added to the userbar 600 Minimized windows can be presented on the userbar 600 for example as either thumb nails of their content or by their window proxy icon For example the minimized window of a Finder s view of a folder may be more appropriately shown as the folder icon rather than a thumbnail of the window s content Applica tions icons on the userbar 600 can provide a contextual menu of their open document windows thereby allowing users to select a specific window to bring to the front 0065 As a process manager the userbar 600 provides a method for users to identify and switch between running applications For example the userbar 600 will permit users to hide unhide processes and perform other such actions through contextual menus or modified mouse clicks An application s status e g not running launching running and running but hidden can also be indicated by the userbar 600 e g by changing an appearance behavior or other characteristic of the application s representative tile on the userbar 600 An application can update its status on the userbar 600 resulting in a change in the appearance or behavior of its representative tile For example a tile rep resenting an e mail application that is resident on the userbar 600 can be overlaid with a number representing the number of new messages in a user s inbox This number can be updated and changed to reflect changes in the status of the in box e g incr
12. d deleted to the application dock 300 by dragging them into a desired location proximate the docking area at which time the operating system will integrate them into the dock 300 0019 Although somewhat more flexible in terms of allowing the user to organize its content than the taskbar appbar of FIG 2 the application dock 300 still suffers from its limitations in terms of the number of applications which can be docked at any one time The icons in the dock are of a fixed size and according to the user manual are therefore limited to a maximum of 13 which can be included in the dock at any one time 0020 Thus it can be seen that there remains need in the art to design a GUI which provides the user with a larger degree of flexibility in terms of both the layout of the tool which manages these types of frequently used objects as well as permitting a larger number of such objects to be managed and simultaneously displayed SUMMARY 0021 According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention these and other drawbacks and difficulties of conventional GUIs are overcome by providing a simple consolidated and easily extensible facility for handling for example frequently used objects For example user inter faces according to the present invention provide a tool referred to herein as userbar which consolidates features including launching and managing running appli cations opening and managing documents and
13. d objectives of providing a simple consolidated and easily extensible facility for han dling frequently used objects The userbar 600 can be implemented as a single horizontal row of items or tiles each of which represent a particular object or process Any state which is supported for each object or process in the operating system should also be supported on the userbar 600 by providing a different appearance for each state For Dec 13 2007 example a tile disposed in userbar 600 can change its appearance as it moves from one state e g selected to another state e g open or offline This allows the user to quickly recognize the current state of each of the items on the userbar 600 Currently executing applications can be indicated by for example placing an LED like indicator graphic above or below the corresponding application s tile or icon Applications can also supply additional tile images to be substituted for or composited on the running appli cation s tile in the userbar 600 For example an e mail application s tile can present the number of new messages superimposed over the application s icon 0046 According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention the default position of the userbar 600 is anchored to the bottom of the main monitor and centered horizontally therein Thus the userbar 600 maintains a position aligned relative to the horizontal center of the screen regardless of the number
14. drag if the cursor 610 continues across the userbar 600 the insert target tile s move following the horizontal position of the cursor US 2007 0288860 Al 610 The position of the cursor 610 relative to the center point of the underlying tile is used to determine at what point the existing tile and insert target tiles swap positions When item s are dropped the actual tile image s repre senting the item s replace their respective translucent insert target tile s An animation sequence may be displayed to reinforce this action 0069 The user can reorder or reposition items on the userbar 600 As mentioned above in this exemplary embodi ment only two items the Finder application tile 630 and the Trash tile 640 cannot be repositioned Instead these tiles remain as bookends defining the boundaries of the userbar s contents Reordering items can be implemented in a straight forward manner by dragging an item tile to a new position with similar graphical feedback being provided as for the process of adding an item to the userbar 600 That is when removed the tile image can be changed to its translucent insert tile image and when reinserted into the userbar 600 the tile will reacquire the image associated with its current state Multiple items can be repositioned at the same time if the user first selects a plurality of items in the userbar 600 prior to initiating a drag operation 0070 selection of multiple tiles ca
15. e cursor is resting could experience some level of magnification Alternatively only the individual tile over Dec 13 2007 which the cursor is resting can be magnified The level percentage of magnification of each tile can also be varied in any desired manner 0055 more fundamental level however it will be appreciated that this magnification permits one or more selected tiles in the userbar 600 i e the tile which is pointed to by the cursor 610 as well as tiles proximate to the cursor 610 to be readily viewed and identified even while other tiles residing in the userbar 600 are possibly more difficult to distinguish This magnification functionality among other techniques associated with user interfaces according to the present invention permits the userbar 600 to on the one hand handle many more objects than was possible in conventional user interfaces in a single simultaneously viewable manner while on the other hand allowing the user to readily identify and manipulate individual objects resid ing on the userbar 0056 the cursor 610 moves over the userbar 600 certain tiles experience increased magnification while other tiles magnification decreases based on their relative dis tance to the current cursor position Compare for example FIG 7 with FIG 6 Although these two figures depict the same userbar 600 1 with the same tiles residing therein the magnification characteristics differ In FI
16. e g the user cannot select or organize the order of the buttons on the taskbar 220 and from difficulties in handling the rep resentation of a large number of applications As more buttons are added to the taskbar 220 each individual button becomes smaller When for example between 20 30 appli cations have been launched and minimized the taskbar 220 begins to add new buttons as a second layer rather than continuing the line of buttons illustrated in FIG 2 To reach the second layer the user must toggle the taskbar 220 i e not all of the buttons are visible simultaneously on the GUI As the power of computers and number of interesting applications documents and other objects increases it is anticipated that users will wish to have ready access to a growing number of objects and therefore will find the approach depicted in FIG 2 to be annoying and ineffective 0018 Another conventional GUI which attempts to solve this particular problem can be found in the NeXT Oper US 2007 0288860 Al ating System As illustrated in FIG 3 and further described in U S Pat No 5 146 556 entitled System and Method for Managing Graphic Images the disclosure of which is also expressly incorporated here by reference this GUI provides an application dock 300 including a column of icons on the right side of the screen 310 The dock 300 is described as providing a visible mechanism for starting applications Icons can be added an
17. easing as new messages are received in the inbox or decreasing after the user reviews his or her mes sages 0066 In operation according to this exemplary embodi ment all running applications will appear on the userbar 600 When launched these applications will place their tiles to the immediate right of the left bookend tile 630 If the tile is left untouched while the application is running then that tile will disappear from the userbar 600 once the application is quit If the user changes the position of the application tile in the userbar 600 while the application is running then the tile is designated as a permanent resident of the userbar 600 and does not disappear when it has finished running 0067 Items can be added to the userbar 600 by dragging them into the userbar s content region During a drag if the cursor 610 enters the region of the userbar 600 the userbar 600 will expand e g at the nearest point between two existing tiles to accommodate the item s being dragged This permits new items to be inserted at any position in the bar While expanded tile images of the items being dragged can be visible in the bar in the positions they would occupy if dropped within the bar These can be displayed as trans lucent insert target tiles to provide the user with an idea of how the userbar 600 would appear after dropping the items onto the userbar 600 at that position 0068 Having entered the userbar 600 during a
18. ecial keys on the alphanumeric input device 406 capable of signaling movement of a given direction or manner of displacement It is to be appreciated that the cursor also may be directed and or activated via input from the keyboard using special keys and key sequence commands Alternatively the cursor may be directed and or activated via input from a number of specially adapted cursor directing devices including those uniquely developed for the disabled In the discussions regarding cursor movement and or activation within the preferred embodiment it is to be assumed that the input cursor directing device or push button may consist any of those described above and specifically is not limited to the mouse cursor device 0036 FIG 5 illustrates an exemplary computer system that in which the present invention can be implemented It will be appreciated that this computer system is one of many computer systems that may can include the present inven tion Therein a keyboard 500 with keys 502 and keypad 504 is attached to the computer 506 along with a mouse device 508 and mouse push button s 510 for controlling the cursor The mouse device 508 and push button 510 make up a cursor control device 407 It will be appreciated that many other devices may be used as the cursor control device 407 for instance the keyboard 500 may be substituted for the mouse device 508 and button s 510 as just discussed above The computer 506 also typically contains a
19. ed which provide different solutions to the manner in which frequently used and currently active desktop objects are handled by the GUI For example consider the conventional GUI depicted in FIGS and 1 5 Therein a Desk Drawer concept is implemented to provide selectively hideable access to frequently used desktop objects FIG 1 a depicts the screen Dec 13 2007 75 having a desktop area 20 with the Desk Drawer closed wherein only the handle 10 of the Desk Drawer is visible An open window 60 containing several document icons 55 58 which are therefore accessible for operations by the user via cursor 50 The window 60 also includes a window title field 65 and window select region 74 0015 When activated e g by placing cursor 50 over handle 10 the Desk Drawer opens to reveal its contents In this case icons 41 42 51 and 59 become visible Now that these icons are visible they too are available for manipulation by the user via cursor 50 Thus the Desk Drawer concept provides a mechanism for placing fre quently used icons in an out of the way yet easily accessible location The interested reader is directed to U S Pat No 5 657 049 entitled Desk Drawer User Interface for a more in depth discussion of this technique the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference 0016 Another conventional GUI 1 that provided with the WINDOWS 95 Operating System tackles the problem of desktop cl
20. edicated application tile can be added to the userbar 600 which tile provides a menu interface to all open document windows grouped by their associated appli cations Userbar Customization 0081 As shown in FIG 7 exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide techniques and mechanisms which permit a user to adjust the manner in which the userbar 600 is displayed on the screen In this example a dialog box 720 is illustrated having a number of user settable preferences available therein These preferences permit the user to tailor the appearance and behavior of the userbar 600 to suit his or her needs 0082 For example as described above the default tile size of the bar may be 64x64 pixels The default value refers to the size of a tile in its unmagnified state However this default value can be changed by the user e g by adjusting US 2007 0288860 Al the slider shown in FIG 7 e g within a range of 16 to 128 pixels square The preferences dialog box 720 may also contain a set of controls which permit the user to determine when the magnification effect will be invoked and the amount of magnification provided In the exemplary pref erences dialog box 720 illustrated in FIG 7 a set of controls is provided for this purpose including a radio button group that permits the user to determine when the magnification effect will be invoked and a slider that allows the user to set the maximum magnification level e g that a
21. ely on a table top then the pointer on the screen will move in a similar and proportional manner The mouse also contains one or more push buttons which can be used to effectuate control over the cursor pointer by selecting or deselecting specific icons or other display tools It is said that the cursor pointer is activated when the mouse button is depressed and the pointer remains active until the button is released Pointer activation may also be initiated by sequences of mouse button presses such as a double click interaction which involves rapidly pressing the mouse but ton press twice in sequence 0010 Access to information in a conventional user inter face system for a display management system is therefore based on windows icons and pointer movement of the cursor To access a file the cursor pointer is placed on the visible icon or visible file name and the pointer is activated A closed window may be represented by an icon or a window name A window opens when the pointer of the cursor rests on the visible icon or visible name representing the closed state of the window and the pointer is activated Within the open window files may be displayed by icon or by name An open window of various geometries may be US 2007 0288860 Al rectangular and will exist within the display area of the main viewing screen on the desktop Multiple windows may be open at one time typically with the most foreground win dow correspondi
22. erbar 600 is to reduce their size However at some relatively small size the images in each tile win not be distinguishable by the user Exemplary embodiments of the present invention address this problem by providing for variable magnification levels as between different tiles on the userbar 600 0053 Referring again to the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG 6 it will be seen that a cursor 610 rests on top of one tile in the userbar 600 1 the tile having the descriptive legend Clock thereabove It will immediately be recognized that the Clock tile on which the cursor 610 rests has been magnified to be larger than the surrounding tiles in the userbar 600 This magnification is attributable to the fisheye effect which can be provided to the userbar 600 according to exemplary embodiments of the present inven tion 0054 In this particular exemplary embodiment not only is the tile upon which cursor 610 rests magnified but so are surrounding tiles The amount of magnification can vary as between tiles proximate the cursor position In this example the magnitude of the magnification level is a function of the distance of each tile edge from the cursor 610 Of course those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many different types of magnification techniques and algorithms which can be employed to provide this type of functionality For example any number of tiles to either side of that over which th
23. et 6 of 6 US 2007 0288860 1 WA 800 a CRRA RAW 800 610 FIG 8B e _ FIG 800 610 8D 800 US 2007 0288860 Al USER INTERFACE FOR PROVIDING CONSOLIDATION AND ACCESS 0001 This 15 a continuation of application Ser No 09 467 074 filed Dec 20 1999 the tents of which are incorporated by reference herein BACKGROUND 0002 The present invention relates generally to graphical user interfaces for computer systems More particularly the present invention relates to systems and methods for inter facing applications and operating systems which provide for flexible customization of graphical user interfaces 0003 evolution of the computer industry is unpar alleled in its rate of growth and complexity Personal com puters for example which began as little more than feeble calculators with limited memory tape driven input and monochrome displays are now able to tackle almost any data processing task While this meteoric increase in power was almost sufficient to satisfy the demand of application design ers and end users alike the corresponding increase in complexity created an ease of use problem which the indus try was somewhat slower in solving Thus designers were faced with a new challenge to harness this computing power in a form usable by even those with relatively little computer training to smooth
24. et window and target icon are visible and thus accessible Window shuffling is time con suming confusing and often very tedious for the user If multiple routine icons need to be systematically accessed in sequence then multiple window shuffling procedures may be required 0013 Another window overlap problem plaguing con ventional user interfaces arises when the user requires two icons to complete a task and each icon is within a different window The resulting screen display may contain several open windows from past tasks that may clutter the screen display with unwanted information This information may obscure the desired windows and icons In many instances the overlapping windows are not unwanted but hold the first of the desired icons in displayable view In order to access the second desired icon the user may close the overlapping window that holds the first icon then gain access to the second desired icon Since the previously closed window holds the first desired icon it must be opened again so that the present task can be completed Again this process is often time consuming and confusing for the user espe cially when the hidden second icon is one that is routinely required In this case the user is engaged in constant win dow shuffling as described above 0014 Not surprisingly these types of problems have received a significant amount of attention in recent years Several user interface products have been develop
25. f FIG 6 with the cursor disposed at another location within the userbar region on the screen and 0032 FIGS 8 a 8 d describe an exemplary magnifica tion effect mechanism according to an exemplary embodi ment of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0033 In the following description for purposes of expla nation and not limitation specific details are set forth such as particular circuits circuit components techniques etc in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention However it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details In other instances detailed descriptions of well known methods devices and circuits are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention 0034 Exemplary embodiments of the present invention can be implemented on an Apple Macintosh computer system using the Finder user interface However it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that user interfaces and elements of user interfaces according to the present invention can be used in combination with any system having a processor and a display In general such computer systems as illustrated in block diagram form by FIG 4 comprise a bus 400 for communicating information a processor 401 coupled with the bus for processing infor mation and instructions a random access memory
26. figuration mechanism of the userbar 600 according to the present invention facilitates frequent changes to its contents which contents are based on a user s preferences and will there fore naturally vary from one user to the next Any type of item or object may be handled by the userbar 600 however a few examples including applications document files and windows will now be described in order to illustrate how exemplary userbars according to the present invention may represent and manipulate various items 0039 Applications can be presented on the userbar 600 by for example one of two methods First the application s icon can be added to the userbar 600 as a permanent fixture e g for most frequently launched applications Alterna tively the application may not be a permanent fixture of the userbar 600 but may be added thereto because it is currently running Such non permanent applications may be repre sented in the userbar 600 only while the application remains running and may be removed automatically by the GUI when the application is terminated Faceless background applications e g virus protection applications if not launched from the userbar 600 need not be represented on the userbar 600 while they are running Similarly applica tion sub processes such as a Finder copy need not appear as a separate application tile on the userbar 600 0040 Document files can also be placed on the userbar 600 This includes
27. fisheye effect for browsing the scaled contents of the userbar This mechanism allows Dec 13 2007 specified contents of the userbar in particular minimized windows to be presented at a larger size and in greater detail and legibility than other objects in the userbar This feature permits among other things the individual tiles of the tool to retain their legibility and prevents the user interaction with the tool from being compromised by the scaled con tents BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0024 These and other objects features and advantages of the present invention will be readily understood by those skilled in the art by reading the following detailed descrip tion in conjunction with the drawings in which 0025 FIGS 1 a and 1 5 depict a first conventional user interface 0026 FIG 2 depicts a second conventional user inter face which employs a taskbar and an appbar to handle objects 0027 FIG 3 depicts a third conventional user interface which employs an application dock 0028 FIG 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary system in which the present invention can be implemented 0029 FIG 5 is an exemplary computer system which may contain the functional blocks of FIG 4 and in which the present invention can be implemented 0030 FIG 6 illustrates a user interface including a user bar according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention 0031 FIG 7 depicts the user interface o
28. for example editable non editable 1 read only and stationary files An application s set files e g Location Manager sets can also be placed on the userbar 600 but may only be useful to the user as part of the userbar 600 if selecting one of these tiles would initiate a set change A user may choose to place multiple copies of a document onto the userbar 600 but the userbar 600 will preferably only include a single representation of each object in a particular state For example if a tile representing a folder is disposed on the userbar 600 and the user opens that folder this can result in the file management system e g Finder opening or navigating to the directory rep resented by the folder If the user then minimizes that file management system window the originating userbar object is then presented on the userbar 600 as a minimized window e g as a folder icon Likewise if a document is opened from the userbar 600 and its window is subsequently mini mized by the user it is preferable that a representation of the minimized window replace the image used for the originat ing document s tile rather than adding a second tile to the userbar 600 for that object 0041 Document windows when minimized by the user are placed on the userbar 600 and remain there until either US 2007 0288860 Al closed or maximized which process is described in more detail below under the section entitled Userbar Function
29. ication 0074 document tile this operation will open the document with the appropriate application launching the application if necessary 0075 On a URL tile this operation will cause the destination to be presented using the appropriate appli cation 0076 On a control strip the module s interface i e a menu will be presented Clicking outside of the inter face will dismiss the interface Dec 13 2007 0077 On a minimized window this operation will cause the window to be maximized The user can switch between running applications by clicking on the desired application tile This will result in that application and all of its associated windows being brought forward in the window layering order 0078 In addition to drag and drop configuring of the userbar 600 users can drag and drop files and other userbar items onto tiles which reside on the userbar 600 For example a document can be dragged and dropped onto a tile representing a word processing application in the userbar 600 resulting in the word processing application being launched and then opening the dropped document Alterna tively a file can be dropped onto a folder residing on the userbar 600 resulting in the file being moved or copied to the target folder 0079 As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art it is useful to provide a mechanism which permits the GUI to distinguish between an operation wherein a user is adding an
30. in the art will appreciate that the label could alternatively be displayed below the corre sponding tile According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention labels for each tile are only visibly displayed on the monitor while the cursor is proximate the corresponding tile For example as the cursor moves into a region associated with a particular tile the label associated with that tile is displayed When the cursor moves out of this region the tile label will vanish Tile labels when made visible or invisible can do so in a manner which makes them appear to fade in or fade out In current embodiments of the present invention when the cursor 610 enters the userbar region a fade in time of zero milliseconds is provided although those skilled in the art will appreciate that this value may be changed In fact the fade in and fade out values mentioned herein may be user changeable e g using the user preferences dialog box described below with respect to FIG 7 US 2007 0288860 Al 0050 the cursor 610 continues to roll across tiles on the userbar 600 the appropriate tile label fades in while the previous tile label fades out Current embodiments of the present invention provide however provide a value of zero milliseconds for fading in and fading out of the tile labels as the cursor moves across the userbar 600 If the cursor 610 leaves the userbar 600 the last label presented persists for a short period e g 250 mil
31. ing GUI design consider as an example of a GUI which has evolved over time the Finder user interface and informa tion management system simply Finder user interface hereafter which runs on the Apple Macintosh computer The Finder user interface is based on the aforedescribed display principles using windows and icons to help manage computer information The main or root window is called the desktop area or more generally the primary display region The desktop or primary display region is always open displayed on the screen with its contents accessible or at least partially accessible and takes up Dec 13 2007 substantially the full display screen area when other win dows are not open The desktop is usually visible in the background when other windows are open 0007 Existing inside any particular window including the desktop itself are other information identifiers called icons An icon is a screen identifier associated with a particular collection of computer information Typically an icon may represent a which is either a collection of data or a program or program segment An icon also may represent the closed state of a window Icons are graphic images displayed on the computer screen and usually cor respond to the type of information stored within the file Icons give the user access to the particular file represented by the graphic image when the icon is visible The use
32. item to the userbar 600 and an operation wherein a user is dropping an item onto an existing tile which is already resident on the userbar 600 According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention a modifier key pressed anytime during the drag but prior to the drop will force a drop action in place of the normal insert action This modifier acts as a toggle between insert mode and drop mode and if released during the drag a drop will result in an default insert instead Toggling the state of the modifier key will result in the bar opening to accept an insert and closing During a modified drag eligible target tiles can be highlighted to denote that they can receive the object type being dragged The user can continue to drag items across the userbar 600 effectively browsing for eligible targets 0080 userbar 600 also provides a number of window management solutions that are intended to allow users to make better use of limited screen space For example according to exemplary embodiments of the present inven tion the userbar 600 does not provide direct access to all open document windows as only minimized windows are to be placed on the userbar Access to a document window menu associated with a tile resident on the userbar 600 can be provided in for example one of two ways First a sub menu can be displayed relative to each application tile the sub menu listing all of that application s open docu ments Second a d
33. laim 25 wherein said indicator includes a text label 27 The computer system of claim 19 wherein said dock comprises a row of said representations along a border of the display area
34. liseconds then fades out Although this exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described in the context of only displaying a single label at a time those skilled in the art will appreciate that this feature of the present invention may be readily adapted to varying implementations For example the tile labels associated with the current tile over which the cursor is positioned as well as the two tiles to either side of the current tile could be simultaneously displayed Again the number of tile labels being displayed may be user settable 0051 According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention in order to assist the user in managing the userbar s contents separator tiles can be provided These colored or translucent separator tiles can be placed between existing tiles to provide a visual distinction between groups of tiles For example the separator tiles may be provided as a half width tiles e g 32 pixels and or quarter width tiles e g 16 pixels Variable Magnification of Userbar Tiles 0052 As mentioned above significant benefit of the present invention may be found in the ability to permit a large number of tiles to reside in a single row of the userbar 600 Of course the number of tiles which can fit in the userbar 600 in a single row is dependent upon the screen size and the size of each individual tile Since screen sizes are fixed the only way to increase the number of tiles in the us
35. n be made by for example defining that performing a shift click on a tile will only select that tile with no further action occurring If the user maintains the shift key in a depressed state additional tiles can be selected Subsequent dragging initiated on one of the pre selected tiles will affect all selected tiles If a discontiguous selection of tiles is repositioned within the userbar 600 the selection will become contiguous after the drop 0071 Items can be removed from the userbar 600 by dragging them to the trash tile 640 or to the desktop The trash tile 640 will provide appropriate drop feedback 2 sound and or animation when an item is dragged thereover As mentioned above since the userbar 600 is preferably not a container which holds original source identifiers but instead only aliases i e pointers this operation will only delete the userbar representation of the item and not the source object in the operating system Alternatively as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art the userbar 600 could also be implemented using real file system objects rather than aliases 0072 The userbar 600 can be implemented to permit the user to interact with the items resident thereon through for example a single mouse click According to this exemplary embodiment single clicking on tiles resident in userbar 600 will produce the following results 0073 On application tiles this operation will launch the appl
36. ng to the most recently opened window and the background windows representing those opened previ ously In the organization scheme described it is appreciated that files are nested within windows and windows can be nested within other windows the main or root window being the desktop area or primary display region 0011 During a session using window based informa tion system many windows can be open at one time with many displayed icons within Windows may overlap and partially or entirely hide other windows or icons What results is that the particular information the user wants to obtain may be hidden behind several layers of windows and may be difficult to access when an icon is hidden by another window it is temporarily not accessible This has been referred to in the industry as the window overlap problem There are several instances where window overlap problems routinely arise in the usage of conventional user interfaces A few of the more troublesome scenarios are described below 0012 In order to complete a task often the user must access a single icon within an open window that exists in the background that is covered or partially covered by other windows The desired icon target icon within the win dow is no longer visible and therefore not presently acces sible The overlapping windows or those that lay on top the target window must be closed or moved away shuffled so that the targ
37. o act as bookends may vary from implementation to implementation of the present invention However in the purely illustrative exemplary embodiments described herein tile 630 which represents the Finder process and its window list is provided as the left bookend of the userbar 600 This tile 630 represents the running Finder process and according to this exemplary embodiment no other tiles may be placed on the userbar 600 to the left of this object Similarly a tile 640 representing the trash object acts as the right bookend of the userbar 600 in this exemplary embodiment This tile may replace any other iconic representation of the trash object on the desktop GUI Acting as the right bookend the user will not be able to place any other tiles on the userbar 600 to the right of this object 0044 In addition to the two exemplary permanent fix tures on the userbar 600 represented in this example by tiles 630 and 640 other predefined content may be placed on the userbar 600 at either the user s discretion or in a manner which is predefined by the GUI Candidate items for such permanent residency on the userbar 600 include for example application folders favorites address book clock web browser and e mail applications Userbar Appearance 0045 Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide various mechanisms which impact the appearance of the userbar 600 in a manner which is intended to aid in achieving the aforementione
38. of items or tile placed in the userbar 600 Depending upon the desired implementation the user may or may not be permitted to relocate the userbar 600 from its default position 0047 In terms of the size of the userbar 600 according to this purely illustrative exemplary embodiment the user bar 600 has a default size of 64x64 pixels This default height may change at locations associated with the cursor position as described below in the section entitled Variable Magnification of Userbar Tiles A gap of a few pixels may be provided between the bottom of the userbar 600 and the bottom of the screen to allow windows that are placed or dragged below the height of the bar to remain partially visible Alternatively the userbar may be provided at the very bottom of the display space such that no gap exists In fact the userbar 600 may be located in any desired space on the display 0048 The userbar 600 is according to these exemplary embodiments the topmost window on the screen i e all other windows appear behind the userbar 600 Applications when creating or zooming document windows should place the bottom of the document window above the top of the bar so as not to obscure any portion of the window with the userbar 600 which would otherwise overlay the newly created window 0049 Each tile can have a label associated therewith For example in FIG 6 the label Clock can be seen centered above tile 610 Those skilled
39. rease other representations in said dock to Dec 13 2007 sizes which are an inversely related to their distances from said cursor while maintaining their respective aspect ratios and move the representations within said dock away from the representations whose sizes are increased so that representations in the vicinity of said increased size representations are not obscured 20 The computer system of claim 19 wherein at least some of said representations relate to application programs and activation of such an application representation causes the corresponding application program to be launched 21 The computer system of claim 19 wherein at least some of said representations relate to files that are associated with application programs and activation of such a file representation causes the associated application program to be launched and the file to be opened 22 The computer system of claim 21 wherein the file is a document 23 The computer system of claim 21 wherein the file is a uniform resource locator 24 The computer system of claim 19 wherein the dock further includes representations of items that function as containers whereby a user can drag an object in said display area and drop it onto such a container representation in the dock 25 The computer system of claim 19 further including the step of displaying an indicator that identifies the repre sentation closest to the cursor 26 The computer system of c
40. s a uniform resource locator 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the dock further includes representations of items that function as containers whereby a user can drag an object in said display area and drop it onto such a container representation in the dock 7 The method of claim 1 further including the step of displaying an indicator that identifies the representation closest to the cursor 8 The method of claim 7 wherein said indicator includes a text label 9 The method of claim 1 wherein said dock comprises a row of said representations along a border of the display area 10 A method for displaying items in a graphical user interface comprising the steps of displaying a plurality of icons on a dock within a display area detecting the positioning of a cursor within a predeter mined distance from at least one of said icons in response to said detection increasing the size of the icon closest to said cursor to a designated size and increasing the sizes of other icons in said dock by amounts which are less than said designated size and inversely related to their distances from said cursor and moving the icons within said dock away from the icons whose sizes are increased so that icons in the vicinity of said increased size icons are not obscured 11 The method of claim 10 wherein at least some of said icons relate to application programs 12 The method of claim 10 wherein at least some of said icons relate to file
41. s of items on a dock within a display area Dec 13 2007 wherein activation of one of said representations in the dock by a user causes a corresponding item to be launched and displayed in said display area detecting the positioning of a cursor within a predeter mined distance from at least one of said representa tions in response to said detection increasing the representation closest to said cursor to a designated size while main taining the aspect ratio of said representation and increasing other representations in said dock to sizes which are an inversely related to their distances from said cursor while maintaining their respective aspect ratios and moving the representations within said dock away from the representations whose sizes are increased so that representations in the vicinity of said increased size representations are not obscured 2 The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of said representations relate to application programs and activa tion of such an application representation causes the corre sponding application program to be launched 3 The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of said representations relate to files that are associated with appli cation programs and activation of such a file representation causes the associated application program to be launched and the file to be opened 4 The method of claim 3 wherein the file is a document 5 The method of claim 3 wherein the file i
42. s that are associated with application programs US 2007 0288860 Al 13 The method of claim 12 wherein the file is a docu ment 14 The method of claim 12 wherein the file is a uniform resource locator 15 The method of claim 10 wherein the dock further includes container items whereby a user can drag an object in said display area and drop it onto such a container item in the dock 16 The method of claim 10 further including the step of displaying an indicator that identifies the icon closest to the cursor 17 The method of claim 16 wherein said indicator includes a text label 18 The method of claim 10 wherein said dock comprises a row of said icons along a border of the display area 19 A computer system comprising a display device and a processor that controls said display device to display a user interface that performs the following operations display a plurality of user activated graphical represen tations of items on a dock within a display area on said display device wherein activation of one of said representations in the dock by a user causes a cor responding item to be launched and displayed in said display area detect the positioning of a cursor within a predeter mined distance from at least one of said representa tions in response to said detection increase the representa tion closest to said cursor to a designated size while maintaining the aspect ratio of said representation and inc
43. serbar contents and appearance according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention the discussion now turns to exemplary techniques in which the userbar 600 can be implemented to provide desirable user interface functionality According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention the userbar 600 is not implemented as a container and therefore it cannot hold file system objects Therefore an object placed on the userbar 600 by the user can be implemented as an alias to the corresponding file system or source object This means that for example moving objects from the userbar to the trash 640 will not result in the source file being destroyed 0063 The userbar 600 according to the present invention has many functions and features including launching navi gation and process management The userbar 600 can also support drag launching and storage e g the ability to open Dec 13 2007 or store a document by dragging it to an application or folder respectively that resides on the userbar 600 as a tile 0064 As a navigator the userbar 600 provides a method for users to easily access or navigate to favorite places including but not limited to windows For example accord ing to exemplary embodiments all system supported uni versal resource locators URLs as well as local or remote directories can be placed on the userbar 600 However in the context of windows minimized windows can be scaled an
44. ssociated with the tile over which the cursor 610 is currently positioned Of course the size of the magnified tiles should not be less than the default size of the tiles and some upper limit may be desirable for the magnification e g 128 pixels 0083 The userbar 600 can also support the ability to be hidden offscreen The preferences dialog box 720 can include a control e g a radio button group as shown in FIG 7 that support for example three states off on and by hotkey for the auto hide feature With auto hide on the userbar 600 will animate e g slide downwards offscreen when the cursor 610 is no longer within the region of the userbar 600 Then display space normally occupied by the userbar 600 is reclaimed and applications can be notified of this event New or zoomed documents will then be sized by the notified applications to make use of this additional screen space Moving the cursor 610 to the bottom of the display will reveal the userbar 600 If the option for hiding the userbar 600 using a hotkey is enabled the userbar 600 can then be hidden or revealed by executing a user definable key combination 0084 As mentioned above some tiles on the userbar 600 may acquire permanent residency on the userbar 600 such that for example when the graphical user interface is initialized the permanent tiles are automatically displayed within the userbar s display region The designation of tiles as permanent or non permanen
45. t may also be controlled by the user through the preferences dialog box 720 by using a select deselect permanent tiles function not shown in FIG 7 which permits a user to identify objects for designation as permanent and optionally to select an image for the corresponding tile to be located on the userbar 600 0085 above described exemplary embodiments are intended to be illustrative in all respects rather than restric tive of the present invention For example although the foregoing illustrative embodiments of the present invention depict a userbar as being a row of tiles disposed along the bottom of a display or screen those skilled in the art will appreciate that userbars according to the present invention may be displayed anywhere in the display space and with any orientation therein Userbars according to the present invention can have any desired shape e g they could be nonlinear shapes or could be presented as multiple rows of tiles Thus the present invention is capable of many varia tions in detailed implementation that can be derived from the description contained herein by a person skilled in the art All such variations and modifications are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the following claims 1 A method for displaying items in a graphical user interface comprising the steps of displaying a plurality of user activated graphical repre sentation
46. ult display state of a group of tiles residing in userbar 600 when the cursor 610 is outside of the userbar region 1 the variable magnification effect has not been invoked 0059 To establish the variable magnification function a scaling height H and an effect width W are chosen Either both or neither of these parameters may be user settable For example the user preferences dialog box 720 in FIG 7 provides an example wherein the user can select the scaling height H via a slider The effect width defines a region wherein any tile that lies even partially within W pixels to either side of the cursor position within the userbar region will be scaled For example as shown in FIG 8 5 the US 2007 0288860 Al darker tiles will be scaled based on the cursor 61075 position while the lighter tiles on either end of the userbar 600 will not be scaled The parameter W can be chosen to be a multiple of the default tile width however such a relation ship is not required 0060 After determining the effect region based on W and the cursor position a scale amount S based on the effect width and change in height of the tiles is calculated accord ing to equation 1 S H h 2 sine ax h 2 Wx2 1 Tiles outside the effect region will be shifted away from the cursor position by the scale amount S resulting in the userbar 600 s width increasing by up to 2S 0061 When the cursor 610 enters the userbar region two distances
47. utter by the provision of a taskbar to organize concurrently running applications as shown in FIG 2 Therein the desktop window 200 includes a plurality of icons 210 as well as the taskbar 220 The icons 210 provide shortcuts to applications or documents which can be invoked e g by double clicking on the desired icon The taskbar 220 identifies windows which are active including both those which are maximized and minimized i e are not currently displayed on the desktop 200 Each such active application is represented on the taskbar 220 by a corre sponding button which typically has an iconic representa tion of the application as well as some descriptive text As new applications are launched representative buttons will be added to the taskbar 220 from left to right Each existing button will be scaled in length to permit the taskbar to accommodate new buttons To maximize an application residing on the taskbar 220 the user can single click on the representative button Another feature sometimes seen in this type of conventional GUI are application bars e g appbar 230 Appbar 230 typically includes a number of smaller buttons relative to the length of buttons on the taskbar when only a few applications are resident there which buttons can be depressed to launch a currently inac tive application 0017 This conventional GUI however suffers from the drawbacks of having a rather rigidly structured layout
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