1. Field of Invention
This invention is related to annotating widgets of a graphical user interface. In particular, this invention is directed to a system and method of annotating widgets to facilitate a user""s learning to use a graphical user interface.
2. Description of Related Art
Complex graphical user interfaces that contain windows, such as collections of menus, dialog boxes and toolbars found in everyday software applications, can be hard to learn. Users must often invoke long, precise sequences of commands or dialog box interactions to accomplish a desired task. Although on-line help manuals are commonly available, on-line help manuals often fail to clarify the problem at hand, and usually require several interactions before the desired information is obtained. While users can usually determine the correct sequence of actions through trial and error, infrequently-used command sequences are often forgotten and thus must be subsequently relearned every time they are required. Furthermore, beginners often keep long sequences of notes which correlate to and supplement actions to be performed in a given software application. However, because these notes are separate from, and not particularly well-linked to, the software application, these hardcopy notes are frequently extremely burdensome to use.
The APPLE GUIDE system is a mechanism in the computer""s help system for showing a user how to accomplish specific tasks with widgets. Specifically, to explain some feature of the interface, highlights and ink marks are used to mark widgets. However, these highlights only exist during the help animation. The freeform digital ink marks cannot be created or manipulated by the user, nor are they available outside the help system.
Widgets are seen throughout today""s software applications. Widgets, being placeholders for all controls in an interface, can range from windows in a graphical user interface, to simple dropdown menus, to buttons in a toolbar, to highly complex multi-level widgets that control complex functions or enable a user to select multiple options for a given application. Tracking a user""s path through the maze of interfaces to achieve a desired result has become cumbersome.
This invention provides systems and methods for annotating widgets.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow a user to select an annotation mode, and with freeform digital ink, to record comments or notes directly on widgets.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow audio data to be associated with a widget and to be played by a user to, for example, direct the user how a particular function should be performed.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow a user to attach video data to a widget and to play back the video data to further facilitate performing a particular function.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow a user to annotate widgets with ASCII text.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for attaching annotations to a widget that can then be shared with other users.
In traditional freeform digital ink interfaces, annotations occur xe2x80x9cinsidexe2x80x9d the widgets, rather than xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d the widgets. The methods and systems of this invention differ because, in the systems and methods of this invention, an annotation, e.g., freeform digital ink, is not treated as user data, e.g., a signature field, or as an annotation on user data, but rather as a method of associating comment, instructions or other annotations with the user interface. While freeform ink has been used to create content and to annotate documents, it has not been used to annotate user interface widgets. In Interactive Sketching for the Early Stages of User Interface Design, James A. Landay, Ph.D. dissertation, Report # CMU-CS-96-201, Computer Science Department, Carnagie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., December 26, freeform digital ink is used to add widgets to user interface prototypes, rather than to annotate existing widgets. Specifically, the prototype widgets are the added content. In contrast, the systems and methods of this invention allow for annotating of existing widgets themselves. Furthermore, U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 09/222,962 herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, provides methods and systems for maintaining freeform ink annotations on changing views.
According to methods and apparatus of this invention, a user can directly annotate a widget with freeform graphical ink. Specifically, the user""s annotations are recorded directly on widgets, without.affecting their functionality.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.