Computer Engineering Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.