The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate virtual objects in user interfaces for multifunction devices.
While using an operating system or other application with a plurality of open applications and/or application windows, a user may need to move from one workspace view (i.e., a first “virtual desktop”) to a different workspace view (i.e., a second “virtual desktop”), move one or more windows from a first workspace view to another workspace view, or see several workspace views simultaneously. Exemplary operating system user interfaces in which multiple workspace views can or could be implemented include the user interfaces for the OS X, Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, and WINDOWS operating systems.
But existing methods for performing these manipulations of workspace views are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, moving between one workspace view and another workspace view may require selecting an icon or other small graphical user interface object with a cursor, and/or remembering unintuitive keyboard shortcuts or other navigation commands. Such manipulations are tedious and create a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for electronic devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for manipulating workspace views. Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace existing methods for manipulating workspace views. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated electronic devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.