Single-handed approach for navigation of application tiles using panning and zooming

摘要

The subject invention provides a unique interactive system and method that facilitate single-handed navigation and interaction with applications within a display space on any type of mobile computing device. The system and method include or employ scalable application tiles corresponding to applications, whereby the application tiles can provide or indicate the current state of the corresponding application. The state information provided in each tile can vary as well depending on the current size of the tile. The tiles can be arranged into a plurality of zones such that a user can view one particular zone at a time and obtain more context and information from the application tiles in that zone rather than working with all tiles and all zones at the same time. The view of the display space can be of the world or all application tiles, zone, or application. Panning and zooming among the zones, application tiles and/or views can be performed single-handedly using designated on or off screen controls.

主权项

1. A mobile computing device comprising:
means for displaying a current view of a display space comprising a plurality of zones, said current view including one of: a zone view which shows a single zone of the plurality of zones; an application view which shows a particular application tile of one of the plurality zones; and a world view which shows the plurality of zones, each zone of the plurality of zones comprising a plurality of application tiles and a central action control, the central action control distinct from the plurality of application tiles, each application tile of the plurality of application tiles corresponding to and operable to launch an individual application, said central action control configured to facilitate functions comprising zooming out from the zone view to the world view, zooming in from the world view to the zone view, and panning from a current zone of the plurality of zones when the current view is the zone view to a second zone of the plurality of zones, wherein said zooming in is performed when said central action control is touched by a user when the current view is the world view, wherein said zooming out is performed when said central action control is touched by the user when the current view is the zone view, and wherein said panning is performed when said central action control is dragged by the user when the current view is the zone view, wherein said panning comprises animated panning of the plurality of application tiles in said current zone along at least one of an x-axis or a y-axis to facilitate a single-handed drag gesture through the plurality of application tiles; and means for displaying position indicator controls that indicate a location of the current view within the display space.