“Apple Inc. has developed an enhancement to its Mac OS X Finder user interface that will allow for different-sized icons within the same window as a means of representing their importance, a recent patent application has revealed,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.
“In the filing, made last December and published for the first time Thursday, the Cupertino-based Mac maker notes that conventional graphical user interfaces already allow users to alter all icons of a display system or window from one size to another size based upon their preference,” McLean reports.
McLean reports, “‘However, such difference in size does not indicate the relative importance of the files or program represented by the icon, since the change in icon size is performed universally for all icons in a container, such as a folder or window,’ the company wrote. ‘Accordingly, in order to present a more informative and personalized user interface, a manner of describing to a user relative importance of an icon in relation to other icons in a system is desirable.'”
“Apple said it has developed a user interface which allows a user to adjust the size of icons based upon the user’s preference or based upon a characteristic of the objects that the icons represent,” McLean reports.
Full article, including patent application illustrations, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “iBulb” for the heads up.]
