TECHNOLOGY

Fisheye Menus For Selecting an Item From a Long List

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Overview

This invention relates to software code enabling the selection of an item from a long list, using, for instance, long linear menus. Such menus might include a list of the top 100 web sites, or 200 countries that the user must select from. As suggested, a fisheye menu would allow the user to view entries of a list appearing on a computer screen in normal sized text where the items further from the highlighted item become smaller and smaller. In this way, the entire list is always visible, and the highlighted item can be readily selected by just moving the mouse up and down.

The advantage of a fisheye menu is that it uses a focus area to select an item from a long linear list. This makes it possible to present the entire menu on a screen without requiring buttons, scroll bars or hierarchies.

A working demonstration applet with the click-though license is available on the web at http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/fisheyemenu.

This technology was developed by Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Please contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at (301) 405-3947 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Contact Info

UM Ventures
0134 Lee Building
7809 Regents Drive
College Park, MD 20742
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (301) 405-3947 | Fax: (301) 314-9502