CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 and claims the benefit of International Application No. PCT/US2018/046283, filed Aug. 10, 2018. The disclosure of the foregoing application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

This specification relates to a system that includes component structures for generating graphical content.

Visual content can be created using various devices and systems. Some devices form a system that allows a designer to create images, text, and other visual content for rendering at a display of an electronic device. The systems can integrate program code to implement methods and elements that generate an example digital interface. Such methods and interfaces enable users to manipulate elements of the visual content to create a new user interface for output at an electronic device display. Existing systems may be modified to produce a more simplified human-machine interface.

SUMMARY

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for obtaining a content theme that includes a set of visual components and accessing design control panels of a design system. The design control panels are configured to provide control functions for adjusting attributes of the components. The design control panels receive a selection of a first component that is linked to at least a second component in the set of visual components. An attribute of the first component is adjusted in response to detecting user interaction with a control panel. The user interaction causes adjustment of an attribute of a second component based on the adjusting of the attribute of the first component because of the second component being linked to the first component. Graphical content is created for output at a display based on the adjusted attributes of the first and second components.

One aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in a computer-implemented method performed using a system that provides an interface for creating user-specified graphical content. The method includes, obtaining a content theme from among a plurality of predefined content themes stored at the system, wherein each predefined content theme includes a set of visual components; receiving, at the interface, input for accessing one or more control panels of the system, the one or more control panels each configured to provide control functions for adjusting attributes of the set of visual components in the content theme; and receiving, at the one or more control panels, a selection of a first component from among the set of visual components in the content theme.

The first component selected from among the set of visual components is linked to at least one second component in the set of visual components stored at the control system; and in response to detecting user interaction with the one or more control panels, adjusting a first visual attribute of the first component based on the control functions of the one or more control panels with which the user interaction occurred. The method further includes, causing an adjustment of a second visual attribute of a second component of the at least one second components linked to the first component based on the adjusting of the first visual attribute of the first component; and creating graphical content for output at a display of a device, wherein the graphical content is created based on the adjusted first visual attribute of the first component and the adjusted second visual attribute of the second component.

These and other implementations can each optionally include one or more of the following features. For example, in some implementations, the method further includes: generating an application interface for output at the display of the device, wherein the application interface comprises representations of the graphical content and is generated based on adjusted visual attributes of one or more components in the set of visual components in the system.

In some implementations, the method further includes, receiving a selection of a first control panel that provides control functions configured to adjust one or more visual attributes of the first component; and adjusting the one or more visual attributes of the first component in response to receiving an adjustment parameter after detecting user interaction with the first control panel that triggers the control functions of the first control panel.

In some implementations, the method further includes, receiving, at the first control panel, a selection of the second component to create the graphical content for output at the display of the device; and automatically adjusting the selected second component to have one or more visual attributes that match the adjusted one or more visual attributes of the first component, wherein the second component is automatically adjusted based on the second component being linked to the first component.

In some implementations, the method further includes, receiving, at the first control panel, a selection of the second component to create the graphical content for output at the display of the device; and automatically adjusting the selected second component in a manner that is unique to the second component based on the adjusted one or more visual attributes of the first component, wherein the second component is automatically adjusted based on the second component being linked to the first component.

In some implementations, the method further includes, receiving, at the system, a selection of an override configured to modify a linking of the second component to the first component; wherein the override enables specific adjustment of the second component such that the second component has one or more visual attributes that differ from one or more visual attributes of the first component. In some implementations, the method further includes, receiving an adjustment parameter that causes adjustment of a visual attribute of the first component; and based on the selection of the override, the adjustment parameter that adjusts the visual attribute of the first component does not cause adjustment of a visual attribute of the second component that is linked to the first component in the design system.

In some implementations, receiving the input for accessing the one or more control panels of the design system includes receiving a selection of at least one of: a color control panel; a shape control panel; a typography control panel; an iconography control panel; or an elevation control panel. In some implementations, the color control panel is configured to provide control functions for adjusting color attributes of each component in the set of visual components in the content theme; the shape control panel is configured to provide control functions for adjusting shape attributes of each component in the set of visual components in the content theme; and the typography control panel is configured to provide control functions for adjusting typography attributes of each component in the set of visual components in the content theme.

In some implementations, the iconography control panel is configured to provide control functions for adjusting iconography attributes of each component in the set of visual components in the content theme; and the elevation control panel is configured to provide control functions for adjusting elevation attributes of each component in the set of visual components in the content theme. In some implementations, the graphical content is created at least in response to selection of the first component and adjustment of one or more visual attributes of the first component based on the content theme.

Other implementations of this and other aspects include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices. A computing system of one or more computers or hardware circuits can be so configured by virtue of software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that in operation cause the system to perform the actions. One or more computer programs can be so configured by virtue of having instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions.

Particular embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented so as to realize one or more of the following advantages. This document describes techniques for implementing an interface that has improved controls and component features for generating graphical content. For example, the described system can be integrated with existing design programs to enhance the design controls of the existing programs. The system provides a library of components that each have visual attributes that are more easily adjusted based on the enhanced controls. The system can integrate with existing design programs to facilitate dynamically adjusting visual attributes of component sets in the component library.

In some cases, components are automatically adjusted in manner that is specific or unique to each component so as to efficiently accomplish the complex task of applying different design systems across an entire set of components at once. A code generation engine of the system interacts with the component library to generate code that enables more streamlined design collaboration among multiple designers. Thus, the techniques discussed in this document can be implemented to provide a more efficient and effective user interface. The interface allows users to apply design themes that cause the system to automatically link and adjust attributes for a set of components without requiring users to use extraneous computing resources to manually adjust attributes of each component.

The techniques provide a repeatable automated process that reduces human intervention and does not require a user to adjust certain portions of graphical content or the manual creation of shared code to facilitate collaboration. The techniques enable computing systems to perform operations that the systems were previously unable to perform due to the challenges of effectively integrating design themes, component linking, and design collaboration in a design system. As such, the described technology improves the human-machine interface and the efficiency of the computer system operation, which is an improvement to the computer system itself.

The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

