Mobile Device User Interface

• US 20080059896A1
• Filed: 08/30/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hirsh, Sandra G., Mohr, Andre, Anderson, Christine, Apfel, Darren A., Urasaki, Cinthya R.
• Application Number:
  US11/468,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20080059896A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• 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 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2747 Scrolling on a display
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons

Abstract

A mobile device user interface is described. Data tiles are arranged as a stack of wheels, where each wheel has one or more data tiles. One data tile from each wheel is simultaneously displayed. Up/down navigation is used to move from one wheel to another, while left/right navigation is used to spin a wheel to view the data tiles on the current wheel.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

arranging a plurality of data tiles as a vertical stack of horizontal wheels, wherein each wheel comprises one or more data tiles;

simultaneously displaying one data tile from each of a plurality of the wheels;

navigating from one wheel to another wheel in response to a received up or down command; and

navigating from one data tile on a particular wheel to another data tile on the particular wheel by spinning the particular wheel in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction respectively in response to a received right or left command.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a particular one of the displayed data tiles comprises a visual wheel position indicator.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the visual wheel position indicator comprises at least one of;

a grouping of dots wherein each dot represents a particular data tile associated with a particular wheel;

or

a grouping of icons wherein each icon represents a type of data available on a particular data tile associated with a particular wheel.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein simultaneously displaying one data tile from each of a plurality of the wheels comprises:

identifying a current data tile associated with one of the plurality of the wheels;

associating a first display size with the current data tile;

associating a second display size with one data tile from each of the remaining of the plurality of the wheels; and

displaying the current data tile according to the first display size while simultaneously displaying the one data tile from each of the remaining of the plurality of the wheels according to the second display size.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of wheels comprises a search wheel such that a first data tile of the search wheel enables a first type of search and a second data tile of the search wheel enables a second type of search.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a select command in association with a particular one of the simultaneously displayed data tiles; and

in response to the select command, displaying a detailed view of data represented by the particular one of the simultaneously displayed data tiles.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a right or left command;

identifying a current wheel as a wheel associated with the data tile that represents the data currently displayed in the detailed view; and

navigating from the currently displayed detailed view to a detailed view of data represented by another data tile associated with the current wheel by spinning the current wheel in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction respectively in response to the received right or left command.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, farther comprising arranging the wheels according to a user-specified wheel order.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising arranging the data tiles of a particular wheel according to a user-specified data tile order.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising responding to a user-submitted command by performing at least one of:

generating a wheel;

deleting a wheel;

adding a data tile to a wheel;

deleting a data tile from a wheel;

or

moving a data tile from a first wheel to a second wheel.

11. A mobile device configured to implement the method as recited in claim 1.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data tiles associated with a particular wheel correspond to data modules associated with a particular column on a web page.

13. A method comprising:

identifying a web page comprising data to be displayed via a mobile device user interface, wherein the web page presents the data arranged as a series of rows and columns of data modules;

determining a number of columns associated with the web page;

generating the mobile device user interface to include a stack of wheels, wherein the number of wheels is equal to or greater than the number of columns;

identifying data modules associated with a first column of the web page;

identifying a first wheel of the mobile device user interface; and

associating the data modules associated with the first column of the web page with data tiles associated with the first wheel of the mobile device user interface.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the stack of wheels is arranged such that the wheel corresponding to the left-most column is the top wheel in the stack.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the data modules associated with the fist column of the web page are associated with the first wheel of the mobile device user interface such that left/right navigation to spin the first wheel of the mobile device user interface mimics up/down navigation along the first column of the web page.

16. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instruction that, when executed, direct a computing device to output a user interface having a plurality of data tiles arranged as a stack of multiple horizontal wheels, wherein:

one data tile from each of the multiple wheels are simultaneously displayed;

up/down navigation provides navigation from one wheel to another wheel; and

left/right navigation provides navigation among multiple data tiles associated with a particular wheel, by spinning the particular wheel independent from the others of the multiple wheels.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising computer-executable instruction that, when executed, direct the computing device to output a user interface displaying a detailed view of a selected one of the simultaneously displayed data tiles.

18. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising computer-executable instruction that, when executed, direct the computing device to:

maintain user interface data;

terminate output of the user interface having the plurality of data tiles arranged as a stack of multiple wheels; and

at a later time, output the user interface having the plurality of data tiles arranged as a stack of multiple horizontal wheels, based on the user interface data such that the appearance of the user interface structure is unchanged from an immediately previous display of the user interface.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 18, wherein the user interface data identifies at least one of:

relative positions of each of the wheels in the user interface;

relative positions of each of the data tiles in each of the wheels in the user interface;

or

user preferences.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the user preferences comprise at least one of:

a color associated with at least one of a data tile or a wheel;

a theme associated with at least one of a data tile or a wheel;

or

a display size of a wheel.