Apple patent involves workflow widgets
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 15, 2007 at 2:17pm
An Apple patent (number 20070266093) for workflow widgets have appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. They refer to graphical user interfaces and the Dashboard technology introduced in Mac OS X 10.5 (“Tiger”).
Here’s Apple’s background on the invention: “A hallmark of modern graphical user interfaces is that they allow a large number of graphical objects or items to be displayed on a display screen at the same time. Leading personal computer operating systems, such as Apple Mac OS.RTM., provide user interfaces in which a number of windows can be displayed, overlapped, resized, moved, configured, and reformatted according to the needs of the user or application. Taskbars, menus, virtual buttons and other user interface elements provide mechanisms for accessing and activating windows even when they are hidden behind other windows.
“Although users appreciate interfaces that can present information on a screen via multiple windows, the result can be overwhelming. For example, users may find it difficult to navigate to a particular user interface element or to locate a desired element among a large number of onscreen elements. The problem is further compounded when user interfaces allow users to position elements in a desired arrangement, including overlapping, minimizing, maximizing, and the like. Although such flexibility may be useful to the user, it can result in a cluttered display screen. Having too many elements displayed on the screen can lead to “information overload,” thus inhibiting the user to efficiently use the computer equipment.
“Many of the deficiencies of conventional user interfaces can be reduced using ‘widgets.’ Generally, widgets are user interface elements that include information and one or more tools (e.g., applications) that let the user perform common tasks and provide fast access to information. Widgets can perform a variety of tasks, including without limitation, communicating with a remote server to provide information to the user (e.g., weather report), providing commonly needed functionality (e.g., a calculator), or acting as an information repository (e.g., a notebook). Widgets can be displayed and accessed through a user interface, such as a ‘dashboard layer,’ which is also referred to as a ‘dashboard.’ The simplicity and utility of widgets and dashboards make them suitable alternatives or improvements to traditional workflow technologies (e.g., email, Instant Messaging, etc.)”
And here’s Apple summary of the invention: “Systems, methods, computer-readable mediums, user interfaces and other implementations are disclosed for incorporating widgets into workflows.
“In some implementations, a widget workflow method includes: launching a widget at a first device; and updating the widget with content created at a second device.
“In some implementations, a widget workflow method includes: making a widget available to one or more subscribing devices, wherein the widget includes content at least some of which can be modified; receiving content updates from the one or more subscribing devices; if more than one content update is received, aggregating the content updates; and making the aggregated content updates available to at least one of the one or more subscribing devices.
“In some implementations, a widget workflow method includes: receiving a request associated with a widget, the request including one or more commands and data; and executing the commands using at least some of the data.
“In some implementations, a widget workflow system includes a workflow communication manager configured to facilitate workflow communications between a plurality of devices. A repository is coupled to the workflow communication manager and is configured to store workflow information received from devices.
“Other implementations are disclosed which are directed to systems, methods, apparatuses, computer-readable mediums and user interfaces.
The inventors are Scott Forstall, Imran A. Chaudhri, John O. Louch and Eric Steven Peyton. The graphic below is a block diagram of a hardware architecture for implementing dashboards.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
