Patent ID: 8843838

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: generating, by a first process executing on a computing device, a graphical wallpaper representation on a first visual layer at a display of the computing device, wherein the first visual layer is a bottom-most visual layer output at the display of the computing device; generating, by a second process executing on the computing device, a representation of an icon on a second visual layer at the display of the computing device, wherein the second visual layer is positioned visually on top of the first visual layer, wherein the computing device is configured to launch an application program associated with the icon or bring focus to the application program when the icon is selected by user input in a particular manner; receiving, by the second process, an indication of user input to move the icon in a path across the display of the computing device; providing, by the second process and to the first process, information that identifies locations of the path between a starting point of the path and an ending point of the path; and animating, by the first process and in response to receiving the information that identifies the locations of the path, portions of the graphical wallpaper representation along the locations of the path over which the icon was moved in order to coordinate movement of the portions of the graphical wallpaper representation with movement of the icon, wherein receiving, by the second process, the indication of the user input to move the icon includes receiving, by the second process, the information that identifies the locations of the path between the starting point of the path and the ending point of the path before the second process provides the information to the first process.