Systems and methods for teaching a person to interact with a computer program having a graphical user interface

• US 20060053372A1
• Filed: 09/06/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marion E. Gubler
• Original Assignee: Transcensus, LLC
• Inventors: Adkins, David L., Adkins, Mark R., Alton, Jeffrey W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,620,895 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for teaching a person how to perform a task within a computer program with at least one graphical user interface object. A script is formulated that contains step-by-step instructions indicating to a person how to perform a task within a computer program through interacting with at least one graphical user interface object of the computer program. The script is formulated by reference to an entity map, which contains programming instructions for accessing at least one graphical user interface object of the program to perform a step of the task. The script is executed by displaying a partial graphical overlay on top of an actual, non-simulated graphical user interface of the program. Each graphical user overlay instructs a user how to provide pertinent user input to graphical user interface objects of the computer program. The partial graphical overlay is positioned adjacent to the pertinent graphical user interface object of the program regardless of the position of that object without any reprogramming of the underlying computer program.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for teaching a person how to perform a task in a computer program with at least one graphical user interface object that performs a desired action in response to user input, the method comprising:

formulating a script, by reference to an entity map, that comprises step-by-step instructions indicating to a user of the computer program how to perform the task, wherein the entity map contains programming instructions for accessing at least one graphical user interface object of the computer program; and

executing the script by;

displaying at least one partial graphical overlay directly on top of an actual, non-simulated graphical user interface of the computer program, each partial graphical overlay visually indicating input to be provided to an associated graphical user interface object to cause the computer program to perform a step of the task; and

positioning the partial graphical overlay adjacent to the associated graphical user interface object regardless of a position of the graphical user interface object without any modification to source code of the computer program.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein executing the script comprises dynamically referencing the entity map.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, further comprising a new version of the entity map created for a new version of the computer program, wherein executing the script comprises referencing the new version of the entity map to properly execute in connection with the new version of the computer program.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least one programming instruction from the entity map is incorporated into the script.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein executing the script comprises a separate computing process from the computer program.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises monitoring user input received during execution of the script.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises preventing incorrect user input from being received by the computer program.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises providing corrective instruction to a user in response to incorrect user input received during the execution of the script.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein formulating the script comprises recording performance of the steps of the task.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising automatically creating programming code within the script configured to generate each partial graphical overlay in response to performing the steps of the task while recording performance of the steps of the task.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein execution of the script further comprises dynamically referencing a graphical user interface object to determine a language in which text within a partial graphical overlay will be displayed.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for teaching a person how to perform a task in a computer program with at least one graphical user interface object that performs a desired action in response to user input, the method comprising:

formulating a script, by reference to an entity map, that comprises step-by-step instructions indicating to a user of the computer program how to perform the task, wherein the entity map contains programming instructions for accessing at least one graphical user interface object of the computer program; and

wherein the script comprises programming instructions configured to;

display at least one partial graphical overlay directly on top of an actual, non-simulated graphical user interface of the computer program, each partial graphical overlay visually indicating input to be provided to an associated graphical user interface object to cause the computer program to perform a step of the task; and

position the partial graphical overlay adjacent to the associated graphical user interface object regardless of a position of the graphical user interface object without any modification to source code of the computer program.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the script is configured to dynamically reference the entity map during execution of the script.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising a new version of the entity map created for a new version of the computer program, wherein the script is configured to properly execute on the new version of the computer program by reference to the new version of new entity map.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein at least one programming instruction from the entity map is incorporated into the script.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the script is formulated by recording performance of the steps of the task.

17. A system for teaching a person how to perform a task in a computer program with at least one graphical user interface object that performs a desired action in response to user input, the system comprising:

an entity map containing programming instructions for accessing at least one graphical user interface object of the computer program;

a script formulation component that references the entity map and generates a script of step-by-step instructions indicating to a user of a computer program how to perform the task within the computer program; and

a script execution component that executes the script and comprises;

a display component that displays at least one partial graphical overlay directly on top of an actual, non-simulated graphical user interface of the computer program, each partial graphical overlay visually indicating input to be provided to an associated graphical user interface object to cause the computer program to perform a step of the task; and

a position component that positions the partial graphical overlay adjacent to the associated graphical user interface object regardless of a position of the graphical user interface object without any modification to source code of the computer program.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the entity map is dynamically referenced by the script execution component while the script is executing.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising an input monitoring component that monitors user input received during execution of the script.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a corrective instruction component that provides corrective instruction to a user in response to incorrect user input received during execution of the script.

21. The system of claim 17, further comprising a recording component, wherein the script formulation component formulates the script by recording performance of the steps of the task while the recording component is active.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the script execution component is executed on a desktop computer.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the script execution component is executed on a wireless phone.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the script execution component is executed on a personal data assistant (PDA).

25. A method for teaching a person how to perform a task in a computer program with at least one graphical user interface object that performs a desired action in response to user input, the method comprising:

formulating a script, by reference to an entity map, that comprises step-by-step instructions indicating to a user of the computer program how to perform the task, wherein the entity map contains programming instructions for accessing at least one graphical user interface object of the computer program; and

executing the script by;

displaying at least one partial graphical overlay directly on top of an actual, non-simulated graphical user interface of the computer program, each partial graphical overlay visually indicating input to be provided to an associated graphical user interface object to cause the computer program to perform a step of the task; and

positioning the partial graphical overlay adjacent to the associated graphical user interface object regardless of a position of the graphical user interface object without any modification to source code of the computer program.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein executing the script comprises dynamically referencing the entity map.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising a new version of the entity map created for a new version of the computer program, wherein executing the script comprises referencing the new version of the entity map to properly execute in connection with the new version of the computer program.