Electronic device and user interface display method thereof

This application claims the priority benefit of U.S.A. provisional application Ser. No. 61/048,219, filed on Apr. 27, 2008. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an electronic device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a book-like user interface of the electronic device.

2. Description of the Related Art

Modem handheld electronic devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), have operating systems whose user interfaces (UIs) are comparable to those of desktop personal computers (PCs). The UI of a handheld electronic device provides various functions and services to its user. Some of the functions and services are very popular and frequently used, such as web surfing, web searching, taking photos, displaying images and pictures, electronic map, calculator, dictionary, organizing contact information, and telephone communication.

Generally, these functions and services are accessible to users in the form of standalone applications, convenient widgets, or web pages. For beginners and casual users with little experiences of modern handheld electronic devices, the variety and complexity of the UI may appear confusing, even daunting. For example, some of the applications and widgets are located on a desktop area of the UI. Some of the applications and widgets are located on pop-up or pull-down menus. Some services are provided as web pages which have to be selected from the bookmarks of a web browser. Sometimes this distributed nature of the functions and services is irritating even to experienced users. Moreover, the operating actions required for starting a widget, an application, and a web page may be very different. The operating actions required to start an application on the desktop may be different from the operating actions required to start an application on a menu. Some applications and widgets may be assigned to deeply nestled menus, which are unobtrusive and difficult to find. All of these add to the difficulty and confusion of using the UI of a handheld electronic device.

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a user interface display method for an electronic device. For example, the electronic device may be a handheld electronic device. The user interface display method displays a book-like UI of the handheld electronic device.

The present invention is also directed to the electronic device which executes the aforementioned user interface display method to display the book-like UI.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a user interface display method for an electronic device is provided. The method organizes a plurality of computer programs and a web browser executable on the electronic device into a virtual book. Each page of the virtual book includes a user interface of one of the computer programs or a web page displayed by the web browser. The method also displays one of the pages as a destination page in response to an operating action of a user on the electronic device so that the user interface or the web page of the destination page is accessible to the user.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, an electronic device executing the user interface display method is provided. The electronic device includes a touch panel and a display. The electronic device organizes a plurality of computer programs and a web browser executable on the electronic device into a virtual book. Each page of the virtual book includes a user interface of one of the computer programs or a web page displayed by the web browser. The electronic device senses movement and/or pressure caused by a user of the electronic device on the touch panel and interprets the movement and/or the pressure as an operating action of the user on the virtual book. Moreover, the electronic device displays one of the pages as a destination page on the display in response to the operating action so that the user interface or the web page of the destination page is accessible to the user.

The electronic device may further display a flipping of the virtual book from a current page to the destination page on the display according to the operating action. The current page is one of the pages of the virtual book. The flipping of the virtual book comprises a single flipping or a continuous flipping. The displaying of the single flipping includes displaying the flipping of the current page or the destination page, without displaying the flipping of the pages between the current page and the destination page. The displaying of the continuous flipping includes displaying the flipping of the pages between the current page and the destination page.

The operating action may include a slide performed by the user on the touch panel. In this case, the electronic device classifies the slide into a fast slide or a slow slide according to a speed of the slide, displays the single flipping on the display in response to the fast slide, and displays the continuous flipping on the display in response to the slow slide. The electronic device classifies the slide into the fast slide if the speed of the slide is higher than a predetermined speed threshold, and classifies the slide into the slow slide if the speed of the slide is lower than the predetermined speed threshold.

The electronic device may display the single flipping in response to the fast slide, and the destination page may be the page directly adjacent to the current page.

The electronic device may further classify the fast slide into a fast short slide or a fast long slide according to a distance of the fast slide. In this case, the electronic device classifies the fast slide into the fast short slide if the distance of the fast slide is shorter than a predetermined distance threshold, and classifies the fast slide into the fast long slide if the distance of the fast slide is longer than the predetermined distance threshold.

The electronic device may display the single flipping in response to the fast short slide, and the destination page may be the page directly adjacent to the current page.

The electronic device may display the single flipping in response to the fast long slide, and the page distance from the current page to the destination page may be a predetermined number.

The electronic device may display the single flipping in response to the fast long slide, and the page distance from the current page to the destination page may be proportional to the distance of the fast long slide.

The electronic device may display the continuous flipping in response to the slow slide. In the continuous flipping, one page of the virtual book may be flipped each time when the slow slide passes through a predetermined number of pixels on the touch panel. In this way, the continuous flipping has a constant speed. Alternatively, the continuous flipping may involve two different speeds. In this case, one page of the virtual book is flipped when the slow slide passes through a first predetermined number of pixels on the touch panel, and then another page of the virtual book is flipped when the slow slide passes through a second predetermined number of pixels on the touch panel.