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Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, persons with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. Persons having visual disability cannot benefit from a standard display screen. People having locomotor challenge, visual disability or hearing problem etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces with special features, which can be used by the people with physical challenges.

There are many input/output devices like mouse, keyboard, pointers, and touch screens …

50 Useful Software On Innovation, Concept Mapping And Idea Management, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Can any software help us innovating? Well a software may not help us directly in innovating but it can definitely help us in practicing any specific process of innovation, be it idea generation, idea management, concept mapping, problem analysis or idea presentation. There are many software which try to help us out while working through many such methods. The following is a list of 50 popular Innovation and Concept mapping software which are alive and usable.

Demonstrating Contradictions In A Graphical User Interface, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Designing a GUI is not so easy as it may appear to outside. The developer has to face many difficulties while improving the features of a GUI. In many cases improving one feature of a GUI results in worsening another feature of it, thus leading to a situation known as contradiction in TRIZ. Many such contradictions have been solved by different inventors in the past. We will demonstrate some important contradictions in this article and discuss alternative solutions for each contradiction.

Using Triz For Maximizing Information Presentation In Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The modern software tools provide numerous graphic elements in their GUI, which demand more and more screen space. As the size of a display screen cannot be extended beyond a limit, it is typically seen as a constraint in a graphical user interface.

Looking from a TRIZ perspective, the computer screen should display all the information that the user needs (Ideal Final Result). There are various methods of addressing the problem of screen space, some of which are, ”using icons for windows”, “the desktop metaphor”, “the large virtual workspace metaphor”, “multiple virtual workspaces”, “overlapping windows” and “increasing dimensions” etc.

There …

Using Triz To Improve Navigation In Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A typical user interface consists of several buttons, menus, windows, trees and other type of controls. The increased number of GUI elements and complexities of the GUI controls necessitate the user to acquire certain level of skill and efficiency in order to operate the GUI. There are many situations which further make the navigation difficult. Ideally the user should face no difficulties in navigating through the user interface. Any operation in the graphical user interface should require minimum pointer operations from the user (Ideal Final Result). This objective of a graphical user interface has led to several inventions trying to …

Using Triz For Minimizing Cursor Movements In Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Although a GUI is a revolutionary development over its predecessors, it suffers from a typical shortcoming that it requires a lot of pointer movements. As pointer movement is a slow process it affects the overall performance of a GUI operation. Besides too much pointer movement can frustrate a user. Hence, it is desirable to reduce the pointer movements while performing any action through a typical GUI. Ideally the user need not move the pointer to initiate a GUI based operation. In other words the pointer itself should automatically move onto the desired location on the graphical user interface (Ideal Final …

Inventions On Improving Visibility Of Gui Elements, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The evolution of computing technology has witnessed tremendous growth in the processing power of the computer. The memory and storage capabilities are also increasing year after year. In contrast to the above, the display area of a PC monitor remains the same. This inhibits the productivity of a computer, as the user does not just have enough view area to interact with the computer. Ideally the display screen should accommodate all required data, objects and GUI elements for user interaction. If some data or object is hidden behind or remaining beyond the display area, it should automatically come to the …

Inventions On User Friendliness Of A Gui- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Although a GUI is considered to be convenient it still has certain shortcomings like ambiguity of pictorial symbols, difficulty of cursor movements, difficulty of interacting with smaller graphic elements, likeliness of making mistakes by slip of fingers, demand of more screen space, difficulty of searching in nested containers etc. Many users fail to operate a computer satisfactorily because of the special skill or training required to operate it. In order to avoid this problem, it is necessary to design the user interface in such a way that even an untrained user should also be able to operate the computer effectively …

Using Triz To Design Error-Free Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A graphical user interface has a lot of advantages over its predecessors. Its beauty, simplicity, adaptability, user-friendliness, visual clarity, speed and ease of operation have made it popular and suitable to a broad range of users. But a GUI also has certain limitations. Like any other type of user interface, a GUI can also be operated wrongly which may yield undesirable results. A good GUI should be intelligent to determine user’s intention and disallow him doing wrong operations. A less error-prone GUI is certainly more effective and efficient. Ideally the GUI should prevent users from doing any mistake while operating …

Arranging Display Of Gui Elements- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

One of the biggest drawbacks of the graphical user interface is that it consumes the active display area associated with the device. Whether the display screen is a part of a television, computer, or any other consumer device, the graphical user interface appears on the active area of the display screen. As a result the GUI masks a part of the display screen and the amount of information that can be viewed on the screen is reduced. Ideally the GUI should offer all its features without blocking any part of the display screen. The features should be readily available and …

Inventions On Three Dimensional Gui- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The graphical user interface has become popular because of its simplicity and user friendliness. The user can do very complex operations through GUI by simple pointer movements. One of its major drawbacks is that it consumes active display area. Every icon, every window and every other GUI element occupies some amount of screen space. It is desirable to display more GUI features within the limited amount of display screen. Adding another dimension to a graphical user interface can yield tremendous benefits such as improving aesthetics, data presentation, screen-space utilization and user friendliness. The user can easily locate the objects in …

Evaluating The Book “Triz: The Right Solutions At The Right Time”, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The book has 10 chapters, all on different approaches and methods of solving problems. Each chapter tries to solve problems using different techniques of TRIZ. The book not only describes all 40 Inventive Principles, 76 Inventive Standards, 39 Contradiction Parameters and other Techniques of TRIZ, but also illustrates a series of 114 practical problems and their solutions. The book has been translated into many languages including Japanese. This is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and essential textbooks on TRIZ.

The Ideal Ifr Is No Ifr: Criticism To The Triz Concept Of Ideality, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The limitations of TRIZ concept of Ideality hail from its root philosophy of Idealism. As the “ideas” are there in human minds/brains they are subjective in nature. The concept of “Ideal” and IFR may vary from person to person as they are biased by individual judgments. Similarly the IFR may vary from system to system and at different phases of the development of a system.

However, the same limitations may be considered as the strengths of Idealism. As the IFRs can be different for different people and groups, the solution developer should not always take his own IFR for granted. …

Introduction To The Concept Of Ideality In Triz, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Ideality is one of the most powerful concepts of TRIZ. According to ideality, the ideal state of the system is where all its functions are achieved without causing any problem. The system is better, faster, low cost, low error, low maintenance and so on. In other words, an ideal system consists of all positives and no negatives. An ideal product or system may not materially exist, or may not be possible to achieve, but the knowledge of the ideal system helps us to improve an existing system. Once we conceive the features of the ideal product (or system), we keep …

Inventions On Auto-Configurable Gui-A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A GUI is intended for the end user but designed by the developer. Even the experienced developer cannot realistically anticipate what options will be required by the users at a future point of time. Besides, even a well-designed GUI may not be felt convenient to all categories of users as the skill, expertise and requirement of the users vary from each other.

Although the user can best describe his requirement and therefore can best configure the GUI, it is not advisable for the user to spend time and effort to configure the GUI. The user interface needs to be customized …

Inventions On User Configurable Gui- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The graphic user interface is a revolutionary development over the prior art technique of the command line interface. Using GUI the user can do even complex operations through simple means like clicking buttons or dragging various graphic elements.

Ideally the GUI should contain all those buttons (or menu items or other GUI elements) and only those buttons (or menu items or other GUI elements) that the user needs. Besides the GUI elements should not obscure the display of data, should take no time for searching and should create no confusion in any level of user. Generally the GUI elements are …

Application Of Triz Principles In Software Concepts, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The Inventive Principles of TRIZ are not only applicable to mechanical or technical field; they are also applicable to Software solutions. Most of the 40 principles are easy to learn, but the question arises where to apply and how to apply. This article shows some simple examples of applying TRIZ principles.

Some people may ask, the solutions in this article are all known, what is the use of trying out TRIZ Principles on them. My answer is the art of problem solving is like learning a bicycle. If you are capable of riding the cycle on a known road, there …

The Concept Of Resources In Triz, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

An ideal system should have all advantages and no harms. If the resources consumed are expensive than the output produced then the invented system becomes ridiculous. The objective should be to use least amount of resources, cheapest resources, easily available resources and resources available within the system.

Every system intends to achieve a main useful function. The use of resources should target to improve its main useful function. If certain parts of a system or certain resources lead to unwanted functions or harmful effects then that part of the system needs to be modified and those resources need to be …

An Introduction To Ariz, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

ARIZ- the Algorithm of Inventive Problem Solving, is a part of TRIZ. It is not as popularly used as other methods in TRIZ. The steps in ARIZ are difficult to follow and requires more intellectual effort. This method is used only to solve complex problem which are not solved by applying other methods of TRIZ. It is a tool for thinking in alternative directions to solve complex and non-standard problems.

From another point of view, ARIZ is a method of problem solving by redefining and restructuring the problem. Although problems can be solved by using other methods, it is better …

The Revised 40 Principles For Software Inventions, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Applying 40 Principles is one of the earliest and most popular techniques of TRIZ. There are no controversies on application of 40 principles by any of the TRIZ schools. Although they are fundamentally sound, there is some difficulty in applying those in software related problems. As they were originally developed for mechanical or technical problems, the meaning of many terms like 'thermal', 'aerodynamic', 'hydrodynamic', 'ultrasonic', 'infrared', 'temperature', 'liquid', 'gas' etc. are embarrassing in a software context.

This article reviews the 40 principles in the context of software industry and rephrases the principles and their applications to make them suitable for …

Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired- Part 2, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, a person with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. People having hearing problem, visual challenge etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to specially design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces, which can be used by the physically challenged people.

This article analyses the types of visual disabilities, different assistive technologies for different visual disabilities, guidelines for developing user interfaces for the visually impaired, software products available for …

Patentability Of Software Inventions, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Software is very expensive to develop but very inexpensive to copy. Just by copying a software you create an exact duplicate of the original software and all with the same functionality. There is no difference between the original (which is bought) and the copy (pirated). The worse is when the source code is copied. The copier can even claim to have developed the software where the credit of the developer might go. The software developers use various methods to protect their source code such as copyright, trade secrets etc. but each having limitations. The developers are keen on finding legal …

Can A Triz Software Help You Inventing?, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A software on TRIZ and/or Innovation can certainly supplement human brain and memory in order to speed up an innovation job. There are various TRIZ and Innovation software available in market. Some are too complex to use, some deal with only limited number of TRIZ techniques and some are having good features of innovation without much emphasis on TRIZ. An obvious task remains to evaluate them and find which software can help you best in inventing.

This article does not recommend or reject any TRIZ software per se. It only describes the expected features of a good TRIZ software and …

Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired- Part- 1, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, a person with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. People having hearing problem, visual challenge etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to specially design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces, which can be used by the physically challenged people.

There are many special devices like mouse, keyboard, pointers, and touch screens etc. to assist the visually challenged users. It is a challenge for the inventors and manufacturers …

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-3, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

This article analyses 15 patents on Menu System from a TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs and Contradictions. The previous two parts of this article analysed ten patents on the menu interfaces. This part analyses five more patents from TRIZ perspective and draws out the conclusion that the TRIZ process and methodology is perfectly applicable to software inventions.

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-2, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The first part of the article analyzed five patents on menu interfaces. This part analyses five more patents from TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs, Contradictions and which Inventive Principles have been applied to achieve those solutions.

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-1, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

During last two decades, the computer menu system has been improved from a text based multiple choice to highly adaptive, self organized menu system. This has been possible by hundreds of inventions. This article analyses 15 patents on Menu System from a TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs and Contradictions. Besides we will also see what Inventive Principles have been applied to achieve those solutions.

Three Tests Of Patentability, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

United States patent law prescribes three major criteria of patentability, viz, novelty, usefulness and non-obviousness. These "three tests of patentability" are fundamentals behind issue of any patent from USPTO. It is important to know these fundamentals for any person who intends to work on patents.