Flexible design architecture for designing media-based projects in a network-based platform

• US 8,990,672 B1
• Filed: 08/25/2014
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Interactive Memories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Interactive Memories Incorporated
• Inventors: Grosz, Aryk Erwin, Lai, Anthony Jan Fung, Schultz, Dan, Barushev, Denys, Astashov, Anton Vladimirovich, Wang, Wiley
• Primary Examiner(s): STORK, KYLE R
• Application Number:
  US14/467,045
• Time in Patent Office: 211 Days
• Field of Search: 715/202, 715/234, 715/243, 715/254, 715/255
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

Methods and systems of inter-relating themes via a design and a layout relationship are disclosed, offering flexibility in design and data relationships of media-based projects. In one embodiment, an Internet user at a user-device selects a theme from a plurality of available themes, the theme being a collection of designsets. The system automatically selects a design from the designsets that best fits the content provided by the user. The design automatically inherits a layout from a layoutset corresponding to the automatically selected design. The design defines style and formatting over the layout, while the layout defines the locations of photos and text. When a user selects a different theme, the system can quickly adjust the design without input from the user, increasing user friendliness and usability. The user can create additional personal customizations, and print the final design to create a photobook or other media-based project.

Claims

1. A method for preparing a media project from a plurality of media files by inter-relating a theme with a design-layout relationship in a client-server environment via a graphical user interface (GUI) of a user device, the method comprising:

providing said GUI on said user device to a user to upload the plurality of media files from said user device to said server, and to select a first theme from a plurality of available themes;

creating a first design for said media project by automatically selecting said first design from a plurality of designsets by performing a best fit calculation to the uploaded media files of all designs in the plurality of designsets which correspond to the selected first theme;

automatically inheriting a first layout from a layoutset corresponding to the first design, wherein said first layout comprises a plurality of slots adapted to contain the uploaded media files; and

automatically inserting content comprising the plurality of media files into the plurality of slots in the first design to create a canvas comprising the first design along with the inserted content, wherein the canvas is a virtual page of the media project as displayed on the GUI,

wherein said first design is created by adding style and formatting information on top of said first layout, wherein said plurality of designsets correspond to said first theme, wherein each designset is linked to one layoutset, wherein said layoutset comprises a plurality of layouts, and wherein each one of the plurality of layouts is used to build one design for said designset corresponding to said layoutset, thereby creating the design-layout relationships between said first design and said first layout,

wherein a designing user other than said user generates at least one layoutset for each theme, each layoutset having a plurality of layouts,

wherein the designing user generates one or more designs for each layout in the layoutset, the designs constituting one or more designsets which correspond to the layoutset, and

wherein the designing user ensures that each layout in the layoutset has at least one corresponding design in the designsets, the layout-design relationship ensuring that the designing user creates designs to support functionality of all of the plurality of layouts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein when said user selects a different theme or inserts a new media file, said first design is automatically adjusted based on the design-layout relationship between said first design and said first layout.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a print command, sending an order to print said first design to a printer, wherein said printer prints said first design on paper, and wherein said paper is selected from a plurality of configurable print sizes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a theme-change by said user, changing said first theme to a second theme, wherein said first design is automatically changed to a second design based on said second theme.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a layout-change by said user, changing said first layout to a second layout, and automatically selecting a second design corresponding to said second layout.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said style and formatting information comprises at least one of a font color, a font style, a plurality of frames, and a plurality of stickers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said layoutset can give rise to one or more designsets, wherein each design from each designset corresponds to a matching layout from the layoutset.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said slots are movable and re-sizeable by said user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each theme when selected from said plurality of available themes is adapted to create a visually distinct layout without altering corresponding slots contained in said first layout.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each theme when selected from said plurality of available themes is adapted to create a visually distinct design without altering said first layout.

11. A system for preparing a media project from a plurality of media files by inter-relating a theme with a design-layout relationship in a client-server environment, the system comprising:

a user device having a graphical user interface (GUI);

a server having a memory and a processor;

a communications-link between said user device and said server; and

a plurality of computer codes embodied on the memory of said server, said plurality of computer codes which when executed causes said server to execute a process to;

auto-prepare a default design and a default layout of said media project by said server after an image analysis on the plurality of media files provided by said user device and a selected theme selected by a user of the user device; and

auto-populate said default design with a subset of said plurality of media files, wherein said default design is auto-selected from a plurality of designsets corresponding to the selected theme, wherein said default layout comprises locations for the media files and is automatically inherited from a layoutset corresponding to said default design,

wherein said default design is created by adding style and formatting information on top of said default layout, wherein said plurality of designsets correspond to said selected theme, wherein each designset is linked to one layoutset, wherein each layoutset comprises a plurality of layouts, and wherein each one of the plurality of layouts is used to build one design for said designset corresponding to said layoutset, thereby creating the design-layout relationship between said default design and said default layout,

wherein a designing user other than said user generates at least one layoutset for each theme, each layoutset having a plurality of layouts,

wherein the designing user generates one or more designs for each layout in the layoutset, the designs constituting one or more designsets which correspond to the layoutset, and

wherein the designing user ensures that each layout in the layoutset has at least one corresponding design in the designsets, the layout-design relationship ensuring that the designing user creates designs to support functionality of all of the plurality of layouts.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein when said user selects a different theme or inserts a new media file, said first design is automatically adjusted based on the layout-design relationship.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to a theme-change by said user, changing said first theme to a second theme, wherein said first design is automatically changed to a second design based on said second theme.

14. A computer-readable, non-transitory digital storage medium storing program code for preparing a media project from a plurality of media files by inter-relating a theme with a theme-design-layout relationship in a client-server environment via a graphical user interface (GUI) of a user device, the program code which when executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a process comprising steps for:

providing said GUI on said user device to a user to upload the plurality of media files from said user device to said server, and to select a first theme from a plurality of available themes;

creating a first design for said media project by automatically selecting said first design from a plurality of designsets by performing a best fit calculation to the uploaded media files of all designs in the plurality of designsets which correspond to the selected first theme;

automatically inheriting a first layout from a layoutset corresponding to the first design, wherein said first layout comprises a plurality of photo slots adapted to contain the uploaded media files; and

automatically inserting content comprising the plurality of media files into the plurality of photo slots in the first design to create a canvas comprising the first design along with the inserted content, wherein the canvas is a virtual page of the media project as displayed on the GUI,

wherein said first design is created by adding style and formatting information on top of said first layout, wherein said plurality of designsets correspond to said first theme, wherein each designset is linked to one layoutset, wherein each layoutset comprises a plurality of layouts, and wherein each one of the plurality of layouts is used to build one design for said designset corresponding to said layoutset, thereby creating the theme-design-layout relationship between said first theme, said first design, and said first layout,

wherein when said user selects a different theme or inserts a new media file, said first design is automatically adjusted based on the theme-design-layout relationship between said first theme, said first design, and said first layout,

wherein a designing user other than said user generates at least one layoutset for each theme, each layoutset having a plurality of layouts,

wherein the designing user generates one or more designs for each layout in the layoutset, the designs constituting one or more designsets which correspond to the layoutset, and

wherein the designing user ensures that each layout in the layoutset has at least one corresponding design in the designsets, the layout-design relationship ensuring that the designing user creates designs to support functionality of all of the plurality of layouts.

15. The storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

responsive to a theme-change by said user, changing said first theme to a second theme, wherein said first design is automatically changed to a second design based on said second theme.

16. The storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

responsive to a layout-change by said user, changing said first layout to a second layout, and automatically selecting a second design corresponding to said second layout.

17. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein said style and formatting information comprises at least one of a font color, a font style, a plurality of frames, and a plurality of stickers.

18. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein said layoutset can give rise to one or more designsets, wherein each design from each designset corresponds to a matching layout from the layoutset.

19. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein each theme when selected from said plurality of available themes is adapted to create a visually distinct layout without altering corresponding photo slots and corresponding text slots contained in said first layout.

20. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein each theme when selected from said plurality of available themes is adapted to create a visually distinct design without altering said first layout.