User interface

About: User interface is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 85402 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1728377 citations. The topic is also known as: UI & input method.

Designing Interfaces

Abstract: Designing a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology -- Web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well. UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence. Designing Interfaces captures those best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them. Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight. A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof design process is given here -- but Designing Interfaces does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately.

Distributed electronic entertainment method and apparatus

Abstract: A distributed electronic entertainment method and apparatus are described. In one embodiment, a central management resource is coupled to multiple out-of-home venues through a wide area network (WAN). The central management resource stores content and performs management, monitoring and entertainment content delivery functions. At each venue at least one entertainment unit is coupled to the WAN. Multiple entertainment units in a venue are coupled to each other through a local area network (LAN). In one embodiment, an entertainment unit includes a user interface that comprises at least one graphical user interface (GUI). The entertainment unit further comprises a local memory device that stores entertainment content comprising music, a peripheral interface, and a user input device. A plurality of peripheral devices are coupled to the at least one entertainment unit via the peripheral interface, wherein a user, through the user input device and the user interface, performs at least one activity from a group comprising, playing music, playing electronic games, viewing television content, and browsing the Internet.

Method and apparatus for indexing, searching and displaying data

Abstract: A computer research tool for indexing, searching and displaying data is disclosed. Specifically, a computer research tool for performing computerized research of data including textual objects in a database or a network and for providing a user interface that significantly enhances data presentation is described. Textual objects and other data in a database or network is indexed by creating a numerical representation of the data. The indexing technique called proximity indexing generates a quick-reference of the relations, patterns and similarity found among the data in the database. Proximity indexing indexes the data by using statistical techniques and empirically developed algorithms. Using this proximity index, an efficient search for pools of data having a particular relation, pattern or characteristic can be effectuated. The Computer Search program, called the Computer Search Program for Data represented in Matrices (CSPDM), provides efficient computer search methods. The CSPDM rank orders data in accordance with the data's relationship to time, a paradigm datum, or any similar reference. An alternative embodiment of the invention employs a cluster link generation algorithm which uses links and nodes to index and search a database or network. The algorithm searches for direct and indirect links to a search node and retrieves the nodes which are most closely related to the search node. The user interface program, called the Graphical User Interface (GUI), provides a user friendly method of interacting with the CSPDM program and prepares and presents a visual graphical display. The graphical display provides the user with a two or three dimensional spatial orientation of the data.

Sketching interfaces: toward more human interface design

Abstract: Researchers at University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University have designed, implemented, and evaluated SILK (Sketching Interfaces Like Krazy), an informal sketching tool that combines many of the benefits of paper-based sketching with the merits of current electronic tools. With SILK, designers can quickly sketch an interface using an electronic pad and stylus, and SILK recognizes widgets and other interface elements as the designer draws them. Unlike paper-based sketching, however, designers can exercise these elements in their sketchy state. For example, a sketched scroll-bar is likely to contain an elevator or thumbnail, the small rectangle a user drags with a mouse. In a paper sketch, the elevator would just sit there, but in a SILK sketch, designers can drag it up and down, which lets them test component or widget behavior. SILK also supports the creation of storyboards-the arrangement of sketches to show how design elements behave, such as how a dialog box appears when the user activates a button. Storyboards are important because they give designers a way to show colleagues, customers, or end users early on how an interface will behave.

Devices, Methods, and Graphical User Interfaces for Accessibility Using a Touch-Sensitive Surface

Abstract: An accessibility method is performed by an electronic device with a display and a touch-sensitive surface. The method includes: displaying a plurality of user interface elements on the display; in response to detecting a first user interface navigation gesture by a finger on the touch-sensitive surface, navigating in the plurality of user interface elements in accordance with a current navigable unit type; in response to detecting a first user interface navigation setting gesture on the touch-sensitive surface: changing the current navigable unit type from the first navigable unit type to a second navigable unit type; and outputting accessibility information about the second navigable unit type; after changing the current navigable unit type, in response to detecting a second user interface navigation gesture by the finger on the touch-sensitive surface, navigating in the plurality of user interface elements in accordance with the current navigable unit type.