Icon label placement in a graphical user interface

• US 8,015,492 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2008
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Reid, Glenn
• Primary Examiner(s): ENGLAND, SARA M
• Application Number:
  US12/029,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20080134065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,303 Days
• Field of Search: 715/788, 715719-724, 715/835
• US Class Current: 715/721
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34

Abstract

To improve the art of graphical user interfaces, the present invention introduces a system that displays iconic resource representations having a salient dimension in a manner that provides the user with an indication of where the user is within that resource. The system of the present invention achieves this goal with the use of a novel system of icon label placement for that resource icon. Specifically, the system of the present invention uses the position of a label on an iconic resource representation that extends beyond at least one edge of a window to convey a proportional position within than iconic resource representation. Thus, a user is given an understanding of the current proportional location within an iconic resource representation from where the graphical interface system renders the label on the iconic resource representation.

Claims

1. A method of rendering a graphical user interface for a computer program, the method comprising:

rendering a representation of a resource icon that extends beyond at least one border of a display area such that only a portion of the resource icon is displayed in the display area, a length of the resource icon representing a salient dimension of a resource; and

by a computing device, automatically rendering a label at a particular location in the display area, the particular location indicating a relative position of the displayed portion of the resource icon with respect to the entire resource icon.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the label is rendered in a first size when the displayed portion of the resource icon is larger than or equal to the first size, wherein the label is rendered in a smaller second size when the displayed portion of the resource icon is smaller than the first size.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the label is rendered close to the border of the display area when the resource icon extends beyond the border of the display area but does not cross a center of the display area.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular location of the label is approximately at a percentage of a length of the displayed portion of the resource icon from the border of the display area, the percentage indicating a percentage of the length of the entire resource icon that crosses a center of the display area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource comprises a video clip.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the label comprises an image from the video clip.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the salient dimension of the resource comprises a time length.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein distances from the label to two ends of the displayed portion of the resource icon have a same proportion as distances from a center of the display area to two ends of the entire resource icon.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for rendering a graphical user interface, the computer program for execution by at least one processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

rendering a representation of a resource icon that extends beyond at least one border of a display area such that only a portion of the resource icon is displayed in the display area, a length of the resource icon representing a salient dimension of a resource; and

automatically rendering a label at a particular position on the display area, the particular position indicating a relative position of the displayed portion of the resource icon with respect to the entire resource icon, wherein the position of the label changes when a different portion of the resource icon is displayed in the display area.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for rendering the label comprises a set of instructions for rendering the label closer to the border of the display area when the resource icon does not cross a center of the display area.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for rendering the label comprises set of instructions for:

rendering the label in a first size when the displayed portion of the resource icon is larger than or equal to the first size; and

rendering the label in a smaller second size when the displayed portion of the resource icon is smaller than the first size.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for generating a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI comprising:

a user interface tool for selecting a video clip for display; and

a display area for;

displaying a portion of a representation of the selected video clip, the representation having a size that corresponds to a duration of the video clip and that extends past at least one edge of the display area, and

automatically displaying a label at a particular position in the display area, the particular position indicating a relative position of the displayed portion of the representation with respect to the entire representation.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the representation of the video clip is displayed on a portion of a timeline in the display area.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the label is displayed on the displayed portion of the representation of the video clip.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein distances from the label to two ends of the displayed portion of the representation have a same proportion as distances from a center of the display area to two ends of the entire representation.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the GUI is a GUI of a video editing application.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the label comprises an image from the video clip.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program executable on one or more processors, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

generating a timeline;

generating a display area for displaying the timeline, wherein the display area displays a first portion of the timeline when the timeline is represented at a scale that makes the timeline longer than the display area;

rendering, on the timeline in the display area, a representation of an element that extends beyond at least one border of the display area such that only a second portion of the element is displayed in the display area; and

automatically rendering a label at a particular location in the display area, the particular location indicating a position of the displayed portion of the element relative to the entire element when the label is rendered.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for scrolling the timeline through the display area.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for moving the element through the display area along with the timeline.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for re-rendering the label at a different location in the display area to reflect changes to the portion of the element that is displayed in the display area.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the element represents a video clip.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the element represents a video portion of an audio-visual clip.

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the element represents an audio portion of an audio-visual clip.

25. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the element represents an audio clip.

26. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the display area is for displaying multiple timelines, each timeline comprising elements of a different type.

27. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the multiple timelines comprise a video timeline, an audio timeline, and a special effects timeline.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for rendering representations for multiple elements and parts of the multiple elements.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the label is rendered on the displayed portion of the element, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for placing a fractional label on the displayed portion of the element when the displayed portion of the element is too small to fit the entire label.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the fractional label is a part of an image derived from the video clip.