Floating action buttons

• US 8,739,038 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2010
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McCormack, Michael J., Bryant, Christopher W., Miller, Andrew R., Coggins, Robert E, Gardner, Scott T.
• Primary Examiner(s): HAILU, TADESSE
• Application Number:
  US12/779,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20100229122A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,475 Days
• Field of Search: 715/810, 715/821, 715/825, 715/841, 715/708
• US Class Current: 715/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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

Abstract

A user interface (UI) includes floating action buttons. Respective hot zones are established for associated respective UI elements. When a focus is targeting (e.g., located at) a given hot zone, one or more floating action buttons that are associated therewith are presented as part of the UI. Activation of a particular action button of the one or more floating action buttons causes an action corresponding to the particular action button to be implemented. In an example implementation, the actions available through the one or more floating action buttons may be context-sensitive such that the actions thereof are tailored to the type of item corresponding to the UI element (e.g., an icon, a graphical element, a text portion, a screen area, etc.).

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a processor-accessible storage medium to store instructions;

one or more modules maintained in the processor-accessible storage medium and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

determining that a focus has entered a first hot zone;

causing presentation of a first set of one or more floating action buttons associated with the first hot zone, the first set of one or more floating action buttons corresponding to a first set of one or more actions, the first set of one or more actions based at least in part on actions associated with contents of the first hot zone;

determining that the focus has entered a second hot zone;

causing presentation of a second set of one or more floating action buttons associated with the second hot zone, wherein the second set of one or more floating action buttons is different than the first set of one or more floating action buttons, the second set of one or more floating action buttons corresponding to a second set of one or more actions, the second set of one or more actions based at least in part on actions associated with contents of the second hot zone, at least one of the second set of one or more actions corresponding to the second set of floating action buttons being different from the first set of one or more actions corresponding to the first set of floating action buttons;

presenting upon activation of one of the first set of one or more floating action buttons or the second set of one or more floating action buttons a group of items; and

affecting an object associated with the first hot zone or second hot zone upon activation of one of the group of items.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more modules further perform operations comprising:

checking whether the focus is no longer within the first hot zone; and

in response to determining that the focus is no longer within the first hot zone, removing the first set of one or more floating action buttons.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the affecting the object comprises modifying a presentation of the object associated with the first hot zone or the second hot zone.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the group of items, when activated, presents an additional sub-group of items.

5. One or more processor-accessible storage media storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, performs acts comprising:

determining that a first object has been selected;

in response to determining that a focus has entered a first hot zone representing the first object, presenting a first set of one or more floating action buttons, the first set of one or more floating action buttons presenting a first group of items upon activation, wherein one or more first actions correspond to the first set of one or more floating action buttons, which correspond to context, subject matter, or both, the context, subject matter, or both including the first object as content of the first hot zone and the first set of one or more floating action buttons being presented according to the content of the first hot zone;

determining that a second object has been selected; and

in response to determining that the focus has entered a second hot zone representing the second object, presenting a second set of one or more floating action buttons, the second set of one or more floating action buttons presenting a second group of items upon activation, wherein one or more second actions correspond to the second set of one or more floating action buttons, which correspond to context, subject matter, or both, the context, subject matter, or both including the second object as content of the second hot zone and the second set of one or more floating action buttons being presented according to the content of the second hot zone, and wherein the first set of one or more floating action buttons associated with the first hot zone is different than the second set of one or more floating action buttons associated with the second hot zone.

6. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, wherein the first object comprises at least a portion of data input by a user.

7. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

determining that the focus has ceased targeting the first hot zone; and

in response to determining that the focus has ceased targeting the first hot zone, removing the first set of one or more floating action buttons.

8. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, wherein the first group of items is proximate to the first hot zone and presented within a bubble.

9. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, further comprising affecting the first object upon activation of one of the first group of items.

10. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, further comprising presenting a focus indicator upon entry to the first hot zone, the focus indicator comprising at least one of:

encircling the first hot zone with a solid or dashed line;

changing a background color of the first hot zone;

changing a size of the first hot zone;

increasing size of text within the first hot zone;

or

inverting a video of the first hot zone.

11. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

detecting that at least one floating action button of the first set of one or more floating action buttons is activated using a standard activation mechanism;

in response to determining that the at least one floating action button is detected to be activated using the standard activation mechanism, implementing an action corresponding to the activated at least one floating action button;

detecting that the at least one floating action button is activated using a non-standard activation mechanism; and

in response to determining that the at least one floating action button is detected to be activated using the non-standard activation mechanism, presenting a context menu that is related to an action corresponding to the activated at least one floating action button.

12. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 5, wherein the context comprises operations commonly used with respect to the selected object.

13. A method comprising:

determining, by a computer processor, that a focus has entered a hot zone encompassing an object;

causing presentation of one or more floating action buttons in response to determining that the focus has entered the hot zone, the one or more floating action buttons being associated with the hot zone and being presented responsive to a type of object encompassed by the hot zone the focus has entered;

revealing a group of items upon activation of at least one of the one or more floating action buttons responsive to the type of the object encompassed by the hot zone the focus has entered;

receiving activation of at least one of the group of items to activate at least one action corresponding to the at least one of the group of items and responsive to the type of the object encompassed by the hot zone the focus has entered; and

affecting a selected object according to the at least one action in response to the activation of the at least one of the group of items.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more floating action buttons relate to a context of the hot zone and the context comprises operations commonly used with respect to the selected object.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising applying a graphical halo effect to the hot zone when focused on the hot zone.

16. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the presenting comprises displaying the group of items within a bubble when otherwise obscured by a floating action button of the floating action buttons.

17. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the presenting comprises displaying the one or more floating action buttons such that at least one action button icon of the one or more floating action buttons at least partially overlaps the hot zone.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

detecting that the at least one floating action button is activated using a standard activation mechanism;

in response to determining that the at least one floating action button is detected to be activated using the standard activation mechanism, implementing an action corresponding to the activated at least one floating action button;

detecting that the at least one floating action button is activated using a non-standard activation mechanism; and

in response to determining that the at least one floating action button is detected to be activated using the non-standard activation mechanism, presenting a context menu that is related to an action corresponding to the activated at least one floating action button.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the standard activating mechanism comprises a left mouse click and the non-standard activating mechanism comprises a right mouse click.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising presenting, upon activation of the at least one floating action and responsive to the type of the object encompassed by the hot zone the focus has entered, the group of items proximate to the hot zone.