Scrolling techniques for user interfaces

• US 8,683,378 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bull, William, Hicks, Kourtny Minh, Wood, Policarpo, Hope, Eric James
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, RUAY L
• Application Number:
  US12/008,322
• Publication Number:
  US 20090064031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,267 Days
• Field of Search: 715200-277, 715700-867, 700701-866, 709201-229, 705 50- 79, 705/26.1, 345 30-111, 345/158, 345/184, 345/771, 345/661, 725/109, 725/34, 463/39, 707/831
• US Class Current: 715/786
• 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 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback

Abstract

Systems and methods for improving the scrolling of user interfaces of electronic devices are provided. For example, a user interface may provide various visual, aural, and tactile enhancements for increasing the ease and speed with which a user may scroll through a list of listings to highlight a particular listing. Each listing may be associated with a particular entry in a media library. Moreover, each listing may be associated with one of multiple sublists in the list of listings, and each sublist may be defined based on a characteristic of a first piece of metadata associated with each entry in the media library. The various visual, aural, and tactile enhancements may be provided based on a relationship between a previously highlighted listing and a currently highlighted listing.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a display in communication with the processor; and

memory coupled to the processor, the memory encoded with program instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to execute a method for navigating through a list, the method comprising;

determining a list of descriptive entry listings;

determining a plurality of sublists within the list, wherein a sublist includes a number of listings;

receiving input for navigating through the list, the input being associated with an attribute, wherein the attribute has a corresponding threshold value;

setting a scrolling mode to be an elemental scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input is below the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the elemental scrolling mode includes;

causing a graphical interface displayed on the display to consecutively scroll between subsequent listings in a current sublist of the list; and

causing the graphical interface to consecutively scroll between a last listing in the current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a next sublist of the list when the current sublist of the list ends; and

setting the scrolling mode to be a quick scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input is above the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the quick scrolling mode includes;

causing the graphical interface displayed on the display to scroll between an original listing in a current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a subsequent sublist of the list that is consecutive with the current sublist of the list, wherein a plurality of listings in the subsequent sublist of the list is simultaneously displayed with the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the attribute includes at least one of:

an acceleration of the user input;

a duration of the user input;

or

a frequency of the user input within a period of time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises an input component configured to receive the user input, wherein the input component is one of a group consisting of:

a rotational input device;

a push button;

a track pad; and

a touch screen.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises an output component in communication with the processor, wherein the method further comprises:

generating a first sound via the output component when the attribute is below the threshold value; and

generating a second sound via the output component when the attribute is above the threshold value.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

causing the user interface to display a visual enhancer related to each one of the sublists when the attribute is above the threshold value.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each listing is associated with an item of metadata, and wherein the plurality of sublists is ordered based on a first characteristic of the item of metadata and wherein the number plurality of listings in each sublist is ordered based on a second characteristic of the item of metadata.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by a processor, a list of descriptive entry listings;

determining a plurality of sublists within the list, wherein a sublist includes a number of listings;

receiving input for navigating through the list, the input being associated with an attribute, wherein the attribute has a corresponding threshold value;

setting a scrolling mode to be an elemental scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input is below the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the elemental scrolling mode includes;

causing a graphical interface displayed on the display to consecutively scroll between subsequent listings in a current sublist of the list; and

causing the graphical interface to consecutively scroll between a last listing in the current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a next sublist of the list when

the current sublist of the list ends; and

setting the scrolling mode to be a quick scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input is above the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the quick scrolling mode includes;

causing the graphical interface displayed on the display to scroll between an original listing in a current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a subsequent sublist of the list that is consecutive with the current sublist of the list, wherein a plurality of listings in the subsequent sublist of the list is simultaneously displayed with the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each listing is associated with an item of metadata, the method further comprising:

causing the user interface to display information descriptive of a characteristic of the item of metadata associated with the third listing when the scrolling mode is identified as the quick scrolling mode and the first user interface scrolls from the first listing to the third listing.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving another user input for navigating through the list;

identifying the scrolling mode based on the attribute associated with the other user input; and

causing the user interface to stop the display of the information descriptive of the characteristic of the item of metadata associated with the third listing when the scrolling mode is identified as the elemental scrolling mode.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein each listing is associated with a payload file including at least one of an audio file, an image file, and a video file.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each listing is associated with an item of metadata, wherein the sublists are ordered based on a first characteristic of the item of metadata and wherein the listings in each sublist are ordered based on a second characteristic of the item of metadata.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the item of metadata is a string of one or more alphanumeric characters descriptive of a title of the payload file, wherein the first characteristic is a first alphanumeric character of the string and the second characteristic is the alphanumerical order of the one or more alphanumeric characters in the string.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein when the graphical interface displayed on the display scrolls between the original listing in the current sublist of the list to the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list, at least one or more listings subsequent to the original listing in the current sublist is displayed along with the original listing in the current sublist before the graphical interface scrolls to the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein when the graphical interface displayed on the display scrolls between the original listing in the current sublist of the list to the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list, the original listing is displayed at a particular portion of the graphical interface along with one or more subsequent listings in the same sublist and then the initial listing is displayed at the particular portion of the graphical interface along with one or more subsequent listings in the same sublist.

15. A system comprising:

a processor;

a display in communication with the processor; and

memory coupled to the processor, the memory encoded with program instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to execute a method for navigating through a list, the method comprising;

determining a list of descriptive entry listings;

determining a plurality of sublists within the list, wherein a sublist includes a number of listings;

receiving input for navigating through the list, the input being associated with an attribute, the attribute being associated with a corresponding threshold value;

activating a quick scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input exceeds the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the quick scrolling mode includes causing a graphical interface displayed on the display to scroll between an original listing in a current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a subsequent sublist of the list that is consecutive with the current sublist of the list, and wherein a plurality of listings in the subsequent sublist of the list is simultaneously displayed with the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list; and

outputting an audio signal when a particular listing in each sublist in the sublists is reached.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each listing is related to one of an audio file, a video file, a geographical location file, and an image file.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the listings within each sublist are ordered from first to last and the particular listing is the first one in that order.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the list includes a first sublist and a second sublist that are differentiated based on metadata associated with one or more listings in each of the first sublist and the second sublist.

19. The system of 18, wherein the asset list identifier indicates which one of the first sublist and the second sublist that the user is currently navigating.

20. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by a processor, a list of descriptive entry listings;

determining a plurality of sublists within the list, wherein a sublist includes a number of listings;

receiving input for navigating through a list, the input being associated with an attribute, the attribute being associated with a corresponding threshold value;

activating a quick scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input exceeds the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the quick scrolling mode includes causing a graphical interface displayed on the display to scroll between an original listing in a current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a subsequent sublist of the list that is consecutive with the current sublist of the list, and wherein a plurality of listings in the subsequent sublist of the list is simultaneously displayed with the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list; and

outputting an audio signal when a particular listing in each sublist in the sublists is reached.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

in response to determining that the attribute exceeds the threshold value, displaying a visual indicator adjacent to another particular listing in each sublist.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the visual indicator is displayed to indicate to the user where within the list the user is currently navigating.

23. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

in response to determining that the attribute exceeds the threshold value, superimposing a visual indicator over at least a portion of the number of listings in each sublist.

24. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by a processor, a list of descriptive entry listings;

determining a plurality of sublists within the list, wherein a sublist includes a set of listings;

receiving input for navigating through a list, the input being associated with an attribute, the attribute being associated with a corresponding threshold value;

activating a quick scrolling mode when the attribute associated with the input exceeds the corresponding threshold value,

wherein the quick scrolling mode includes causing a graphical interface displayed on the display to scroll between an original listing in a current sublist of the list to an initial listing in a subsequent sublist of the list that is consecutive with the current sublist of the list, and wherein a plurality of listings in the subsequent sublist of the list is simultaneously displayed with the initial listing in the subsequent sublist of the list; and

providing an asset sublist identifier along with a particular listing in each sublist.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein each listing in the set of listings is related to one of an audio file, an image file, and a geographical location file.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein providing the asset sublist identifier includes generating an audible signal associated with the quick scroll mode.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein each one of at least two sublists is differentiated from the other based on a time zone associated with listings in the sublist.

28. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

in response to determining that the attribute drops below the threshold value, ceasing to provide the asset list identifier along with the listing in each sublist.