Inventions on dialog boxes used in GUI

Dialog boxes are used in graphical user interfaces to display a few possible options based on a typical scenario. The dialog boxes are useful in case of displaying warnings, errors, confirmations etc. in special situations. A typical dialog box is displayed in a small window with some text message along with a few options for the user to select. A dialog box might display the attributes of an object such as the color, size and position etc. and allows the user to alter them. However, there are certain difficulties associated in programming and implementing a conventional dialog box. For example: Dialog boxes take intensive care for programming as each dialog box is intended to handle a critical situation. Including hundreds of dialog boxes requires a lot of programming effort. The contents of the dialog box are generally hard coded. If there is any change in the program flow, the concerned dialog boxes may need to be revised accordingly. The display of the dialog box occupies substantial screen space thereby blocking the visibility of valuable information on the screen. The traditional dialog box mechanism cannot manage displaying multiple dialog boxes at a time. The modal dialog boxes do not allow the user to work on the application until the user explicitly closes them. However, the modeless dialog boxes are difficult to control as they can open in multiple and clutter the screen. Thus, an ideal dialog box should be deprived of the above mentioned and other drawbacks. The dialog box should not obscure the screen. The user should be able open multiple dialog boxes but without obscuring the screen. The dialogs may have user configurability, previewability and other advanced features. This article analyses 5 interesting inventions on dialog boxes selected from US Patent database. Each invention tries to overcome some limitations of a conventional dialog box and provides some positive features. Each solution is also analyzed from a TRIZ perspective. 2.1 Dynamic dialog box facility (5821932) Background problem The dialog boxes typically display some message on the screen. The messages are normally informative and sometimes seek an input from the user. The programmer or developer spends a lot of time and effort to build a dialog box. As a dialog box is quite frequently used in an application, the development needs a lot of programming effort. Solution provided by the invention William Pittore invented a dynamic dialog box (Patent 5821932, Assigned …