A graphical user interface has a lot of advantages over its predecessors. Its beauty, simplicity, adaptability, user-friendliness, visual clarity, speed and ease of operation have made it popular and suitable to a broad range of users.

But a GUI also has certain limitations. Like any other type of user interface, a GUI can also be operated wrongly which may yield undesirable results. A good GUI should be intelligent to determine user’s intention and disallow him doing wrong operations. A less error-prone GUI is certainly more effective and efficient.

Ideally the GUI should prevent users from doing any mistake while operating the GUI. A better GUI would intelligently detect and automatically correct all wrong operations done by the user (Ideal Final Result).

The article analyzes the features of an ideal GUI, finds out the contradictions in achieving the ideal features and illustrates alternative methods of solving the contradictions. Seven patents are analyzed from US patent database illustrating how each of them tries to reduce operational errors in a GUI.

The evolution of computing technology has witnessed tremendous growth in the processing power of the computer. The memory and storage capabilities are also increasing year after year. In contrast to the above, the display area of a PC monitor remains the same. This inhibits the productivity of a computer, as the user does not just have enough view area to interact with the computer.

Ideally the display screen should accommodate all required data, objects and GUI elements for user interaction. If some data or object is hidden behind or remaining beyond the display area, it should automatically come to the front when needed by the user. If any text or image is reduced in size to save display space, it should automatically be enlarged when the user wants to view it.

The article analyzes six patents from US Patent database illustrating their background, their objectives or desired results, contradictions faced in achieving the desired results and how these inventions have solved the contradictions.

A typical user interface consists of several buttons, menus, windows, trees and other type of controls. The increased number of GUI elements and complexities of the GUI controls necessitate the user to acquire certain level of skill and efficiency in order to operate the GUI. There are many situations which further make the navigation difficult.

Ideally the user should face no difficulties in navigating through the user interface. Any operation in the graphical user interface should require minimum pointer operations from the user (Ideal Final Result).

This objective of a graphical user interface has led to several inventions trying to make the navigation simple and efficient. The article analyzes some inventions from US Patent database and illustrates how each of them has tried to solve different problems of navigation in a graphical user interface.