Organization mode support mechanisms

• US 10,078,411 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2014
• Issued: 09/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Welicki, Leon Ezequiel, Wang, Mo, Scrosati, Christopher, Owens, Kristofer John, Harris, Jon, Sterling, Jonah Bush, Supino, Dina-Marie Ledonna, Joshi, Vishal R., Francisco, Jesse David, Danton, Stephen Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kieu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gattew, Asteway T
• Application Number:
  US14/310,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20150286343A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop

Abstract

An organization mode in a user interface that displays multiple user interface elements. The multiple user interface elements fit over a grid positions that are at least conceptually imposed over a canvas. In organization mode, the grid positions are displayed, allowing the user to more easily see where user interface elements may be placed. As the user moves and/or resizes a user interface element, one or more corresponding grid positions are highlighted to show where the user interface element would be placed if the move or resize operation were to conclude at that moment. The organization mode may also provide a contextual actions menu with respect to a particular user interface element. The contextual actions menu includes multiple organization mode commands, including one or more that may be directed selected from the contextual actions menu to invoke the command.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a computing system to cause the computing system to perform a method for supporting an organization mode in which a plurality of user interface elements may be organized within a user interface, the method comprising:

an act of displaying a canvas on the user interface, the canvas being subdivided into at least an extendable start board portion and a constituent element portion, the extendable start board portion being displayed simultaneously with the constituent element portion on the canvas, wherein;

upon selection of any one user interface element in the extendable start board portion, the constituent element portion is updated to include a group of user interface elements that each corresponds to the selected any one user interface element,

a size of the constituent element portion is dependent on a size of the extendable start board portion such that as the size of the extendable start board portion increases, the size of the constituent element portion decreases in response, and

when the size of the constituent element portion decreases, an appearance of at least some elements in the group of user interface elements included in the constituent element portion is progressively cutoff to coincide with the decreasing size of the constituent element portion;

an act of displaying a plurality of user interface elements on the extendable start board portion of the canvas so as to conform to a grid pattern having a plurality of grid positions on the extendable start board portion, each of the plurality of user interface elements occupying one or more of the grid positions of the plurality of grid positions and having boundaries corresponding to boundaries between grid positions;

an act of detecting a user instruction representing an intent to organize one or more of the plurality of user interface elements on the canvas, the user interface entering the organization mode after the user instruction is received;

an act of causing an appearance of at least some remaining user interface elements in the plurality to change such that the appearances are deemphasized, the at least some remaining user interface elements being elements that were not associated with the user instruction;

an act of causing at least some of the plurality of grid positions to be displayed in response to the act of detecting the user instruction; and

while in the organization mode and in response to selecting a particular user interface element, an act of causing a contextual actions menu to appear for the particular user interface element, the contextual actions menu displaying a subset of available commands, the displayed subset of available commands being commands that have been previously identified as being commonly used by a user while the user interacts with the user interface in the organization mode, the contextual actions menu being displayed simultaneously with the particular user interface element.

2. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the displayed subset of available commands includes a pin and unpin command.

3. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, the act of detecting a user instruction comprising:

an act of detecting a user instruction to move the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements on the canvas.

4. The computer program product in accordance with claim 3, the method further comprising:

an act of detecting that a user is moving the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements; and

for each of a plurality of instances during the user'"'"'s detected moving of the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements, an act of highlighting one or more of the plurality of grid positions so that the highlighted one or more grid positions represents where the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements would be placed on the canvas if the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements were to be dropped at the corresponding instance of the plurality of instances.

5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, the highlighted one or more grid positions being underneath the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements for each of at least a majority of the plurality of instances.

6. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, the highlighted one or more grid positions being adjacent another of the plurality of user interface elements, but not underneath the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements for each of at least a majority of the plurality of instances.

7. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, the act of detecting a user instruction comprising:

an act of detecting a user instruction to resize the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements on the canvas.

8. The computer program product in accordance with claim 7, the method further comprising:

an act of detecting that a user is resizing the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements; and

for each of one or more instances during the user'"'"'s detected resizing of the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements, an act of highlighting one or more of the plurality of grid positions so that the highlighted one or more grid positions represents where the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements would be placed on the canvas if the one or more of the plurality of user interface elements were to be dropped at the corresponding instance of the one or more instances.

9. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, each of the plurality of user interface elements having one of a set of predetermined allowable shapes and sizes, each of the predetermined allowable shapes and sizes fitting over one or more grid positions.

10. A method for supporting an organization mode in which a plurality of user interface elements may be organized within a user interface, the method comprising:

an act of displaying a canvas on the user interface, the canvas being subdivided into at least an extendable start board portion and a constituent element portion, the extendable start board portion being displayed simultaneously with the constituent element portion on the canvas, wherein;

upon selection of any one user interface element in the extendable start board portion, the constituent element portion is updated to include a group of user interface elements that each corresponds to the selected any one user interface element,

a size of the constituent element portion is dependent on a size of the extendable start board portion such that as the size of the extendable start board portion increases, the size of the constituent element portion decreases in response, and

when the size of the constituent element portion decreases, an appearance of at least some elements in the group of user interface elements included in the constituent element portion is progressively cutoff to coincide with the decreasing size of the constituent element portion;

an act of displaying a plurality of user interface elements on the extendable start board portion of the canvas so as to conform to a grid pattern having a plurality of grid positions on the extendable start board portion, each of the plurality of user interface elements fitting over one or more of the grid positions of the plurality of grid positions;

an act of entering an organization mode in which the plurality of user interface elements may be organized on the canvas in a manner not permitted outside of the organization mode;

after detecting user input directed to at least one user interface element in the plurality while in the organization mode, an act of causing an appearance of at least some remaining user interface elements in the plurality to change such that the appearances are deemphasized, the at least some remaining user interface elements being elements that were not associated with the user input;

an act of causing at least some of the plurality of grid positions to be displayed on the canvas while in the organization mode; and

while in the organization mode and in response to selecting a particular user interface element, an act of causing a contextual actions menu to appear for the particular user interface element, the contextual actions menu displaying a subset of available commands, the displayed subset of available commands being commands that have been previously identified as being commonly used by a user while the user interacts with the user interface in the organization mode, the contextual actions menu being displayed simultaneously with the particular user interface element.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10, wherein grid positions are not displayed on the canvas while not in organization mode.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of causing the at least some of the plurality of grid positions to be displayed on the canvas while in the organization mode comprises:

causing a plurality of grid lines to appear on the canvas, the plurality of grid lines appearing on the canvas only after a user has initiated a move of the at least one user interface element.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

an act of detecting that a user has moved a first user interface element included within the plurality to a location that is not within a single grid position of a second user interface element; and

in response to the first user interface element being placed in the location that is not within the single grid position of the second user interface element, an act of causing the first user interface element to be snapped to a new position that is within the single grid position of the second user interface element.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further includes:

an act of selecting a group of user interface elements; and

after selecting the group, an act of causing each user interface element in the group to be acted upon concurrently.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one user interface element is associated with a website, and wherein the method further comprises:

after detecting the user input directed to the at least one user interface element, an act of causing a new user interface element to be displayed, wherein the new user interface element was not displayed prior to detecting the user input.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the new user interface element includes a start and a stop button associated with the website.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one user interface element displays a notification indicating that the at least one user interface element is associated with the website, and wherein the new user interface element also displays a similar notification.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of entering the organization mode further includes causing the entire user interface to be darkened.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of entering the organization mode further includes causing a plurality of dashed grid lines to appear.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein the subset of available commands that appear in the contextual actions menu when the organization mode is active is at least partially different than a different subset of commands that appear in the contextual actions menu when the organization mode is not active.

21. The method of claim 10, wherein when multiple user interface elements are selected, the multiple user interface elements are moveable as an entire group.

22. A computer-implemented method performed by one or more processors of a computing system which includes a memory having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform the computer-implemented method, which permits visualizing an organization mode in which a plurality of user interface elements may be organized within a user interface, the computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying a canvas on the user interface, the canvas being subdivided into at least an extendable start board portion and a constituent element portion, the extendable start board portion being displayed simultaneously with the constituent element portion on the canvas, wherein;

upon selection of any one user interface element in the extendable start board portion, the constituent element portion is updated to include a group of user interface elements that each corresponds to the selected any one user interface element,

a size of the constituent element portion is dependent on a size of the extendable start board portion such that as the size of the extendable start board portion increases, the size of the constituent element portion decreases in response, and

when the size of the constituent element portion decreases, an appearance of at least some elements in the group of user interface elements included in the constituent element portion is progressively cutoff to coincide with the decreasing size of the constituent element portion;

displaying a plurality of user interface elements on the extendable start board portion of the canvas, wherein the interface elements conform to a grid pattern having a plurality of grid positions on the extendable start board portion, each individual interface element occupying one or more of the grid positions and having boundaries corresponding to the boundaries of the one or more grid positions occupied by the individual interface element;

the one or more processors detecting at the interface an input representing an intent to organize one or more of the interface elements on the canvas;

in response to detecting said input representing an intent to organize one or more of the interface elements on the canvas, the one or more processors initiating an organization mode at the interface, wherein unoccupied grid positions of the canvas are displayed to permit visualization of where interface elements can be moved, added, enlarged or reduced in size, in order to facilitate visualizing organization of one or more interface elements on the interface, and wherein the one or more interface elements associated with the input are visually emphasized;

an act of causing an appearance of at least some remaining user interface elements in the plurality to change such that the appearances are deemphasized, wherein the at least some remaining user interface elements are elements that were not associated with the input, and wherein the appearances are deemphasized by becoming darker; and

while in the organization mode and in response to selecting a particular user interface element, an act of causing a contextual actions menu to appear for the particular user interface element, the contextual actions menu displaying a subset of available commands, the displayed subset of available commands being commands that have been previously identified as being commonly used by a user while the user interacts with the user interface in the organization mode, the contextual actions menu being displayed simultaneously with the particular user interface element.