Method of issuing sporadic micro-prompts for semi-repetitive tasks

• US 20040268266A1
• Filed: 06/25/2004
• Published: 12/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartsheet Inc.
• Original Assignee: Benjamin Slotznick
• Inventors: Sheetz, Stephen C., Slotznick, Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 7,882,434 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/812
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

A method is provided for prompting a user who interacts with content on a display screen via a pointing device that a potential mistake may have been made during the interaction. The interaction includes a plurality of actions associated with the content of the display screen. The content is created by programming code. Programming code is analyzed to determine the next most likely action to occur during user interaction with the display screen contents at a plurality of different points in the programming code. After an action occurs by a user at a point in the programming code, it is detected whether the user performed the next most likely action. The user is prompted with an indication if the user did not perform the next most likely action and therefore may have made a potential mistake.

Claims

1. A method of prompting a user who interacts with content on a display screen via a pointing device to indicate that a potential mistake may have been made during the interaction, wherein the interaction includes a plurality of actions associated with the content of the display screen, the content being created by programming code, the method comprising:

(a) analyzing programming code to determine the next most likely action to occur during user interaction with the display screen contents at a plurality of different points in the programming code;

(b) after an action occurs by a user at a point in the programming code, detecting whether the user performed the next most likely action; and

(c) prompting the user with an indication if the user did not perform the next most likely action and therefore may have made a potential mistake.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (c) further comprises inhibiting the user'"'"'s action in step (b) from occurring for at least a predetermined period of time if the user did not perform the next most likely action.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

(d) if the user has not modified his or her action to be the next most likely action by the predetermined period of time, allowing the user'"'"'s latest action to occur.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

(d) if the user has not modified his or her action to be the next most likely action by the predetermined period of time, repeating step (c).

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

(d) if the user has not modified his or her action to be the next most likely action by the predetermined period of time, automatically performing the next most likely action and ignoring the user'"'"'s actions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication is an audiovisual message or signal.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the indication is the highlighting of selected text on the display screen.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication is a message or signal that communicates to the user what the next most likely action is.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the programming code defines text, and at least some of the actions are to cause text defined by the programming code to be electronically read by a text-to-speech reader.

10. A method of prompting a user who interacts with content on a display screen via a pointing device to indicate that a potential mistake may have been made during the interaction, wherein the interaction includes a plurality of actions associated with the content of the display screen, the content being created by programming code, the method comprising:

(a) analyzing programming code to determine the next most likely action to occur during user interaction with the display screen contents at a plurality of different points in the programming code;

(b) prestoring next actions that are likely mistakes at a plurality of different points in the programming code, wherein actions that are likely mistakes are actions that are not the next most likely action to occur as determined in step (a);

(c) after an action occurs by a user at a point in the programming code, detecting whether the user performed a likely mistake; and

(d) prompting the user with an indication if the user performed a likely mistake.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein step (d) further comprises inhibiting the user'"'"'s action in step (c) from occurring for at least a predetermined period of time if the user performed a likely mistake.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

(e) if the user has not modified his or her action to be an action that is not a likely mistake by the predetermined period of time, allowing the user'"'"'s latest action to occur.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

(e) if the user has not modified his or her action to be an action that is not a likely mistake by the predetermined period of time, repeating step (d).

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

(e) if the user has not modified his or her action to be an action that is not a likely mistake by the predetermined period of time, ignoring the user'"'"'s actions and automatically performing a next action that is not a likely mistake.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the indication is an audiovisual message or signal.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the indication is the highlighting of selected text on the display screen.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the indication is a message or signal that communicates to the user what the next action should be.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein an action likely to be a mistake is an action that is not the action that is most likely to occur next.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein at least some of the programming code defines text, and at least some of the actions are to cause text defined by the programming code to be electronically read by a text-to-speech reader.

20. A method of creating reassembled programming code which defines sequentially ordered tasks to be performed by original programming code, the method comprising:

(a) parsing at least some of the original programming code into a plurality of portions of original programming code, each portion of the original programming code being associated with a task;

(b) associating a tag with each portion of the original programming code, the tag defining sequence information regarding the portion of the original programming code in relation to other portions of the original programming code; and

(c) reassembling the portions of the original programming code including the tags, the reassembled programming code being used to assist a user to perform the tasks defined by the original programming code in a desired sequence.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the original and reassembled programming code is HTML code that defines a portion of text, the plurality of portions of the original programming code being a plurality of sequentially arranged grammatical units that define the portion of the text, each tag thereby being associated with a grammatical unit.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the grammatical units are sentences.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the tags are span tags.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein at least some of the tasks are to cause the grammatical units to be electronically read by a text-to-speech reader.

25. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

(d) defining an array index to store the desired task sequence.

26. An article of manufacture for prompting a user who interacts with content on a display screen via a pointing device to indicate that a potential mistake may have been made during the interaction, wherein the interaction includes a plurality of actions associated with the content of the display screen, the content being created by programming code, the article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

(a) analyzing programming code to determine the next most likely action to occur during user interaction with the display screen contents at a plurality of different points in the programming code;

(b) after an action occurs by a user at a point in the programming code, detecting whether the user performed the next most likely action; and

(c) prompting the user with an indication if the user did not perform the next most likely action and therefore may have made a potential mistake.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 26 wherein step (c) further comprises inhibiting the user'"'"'s action in step (b) from occurring for at least a predetermined period of time if the user did not perform the next most likely action.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 27 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(d) if the user has not modified his or her action to be the next most likely action by the predetermined period of time, allowing the user'"'"'s latest action to occur.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 27 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(d) if the user has not modified his or her action to be the next most likely action by the predetermined period of time, repeating step (c).

30. The article of manufacture of claim 27 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(d) if the user has not modified his or her action to be the next most likely action by the predetermined period of time, automatically performing the next most likely action and ignoring the user'"'"'s actions.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 26 wherein the indication is an audiovisual message or signal.

32. The article of manufacture of claim 31 wherein the indication is the highlighting of selected text on the display screen.

33. The article of manufacture of claim 26 wherein the indication is a message or signal that communicates to the user what the next most likely action is.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 26 wherein at least some of the programming code defines text, and at least some of the actions are to cause text defined by the programming code to be electronically read by a text-to-speech reader.

35. An article of manufacture for prompting a user who interacts with content on a display screen via a pointing device to indicate that a potential mistake may have been made during the interaction, wherein the interaction includes a plurality of actions associated with the content of the display screen, the content being created by programming code, the article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

(a) analyzing programming code to determine the next most likely action to occur during user interaction with the display screen contents at a plurality of different points in the programming code;

(b) prestoring next actions that are likely mistakes at a plurality of different points in the programming code, wherein actions that are likely mistakes are actions that are not the next most likely action to occur as determined in step (a);

(c) after an action occurs by a user at a point in the programming code, detecting whether the user performed a likely mistake; and

(d) prompting the user with an indication if the user performed a likely mistake.

36. The article of manufacture of claim 35 wherein step (d) further comprises inhibiting the user'"'"'s action in step (c) from occurring for at least a predetermined period of time if the user performed a likely mistake.

37. The article of manufacture of claim 36 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(e) if the user has not modified his or her action to be an action that is not a likely mistake by the predetermined period of time, allowing the user'"'"'s latest action to occur.

38. The article of manufacture of claim 36 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(e) if the user has not modified his or her action to be an action that is not a likely mistake by the predetermined period of time, repeating step (d).

39. The article of manufacture of claim 36 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(e) if the user has not modified his or her action to be an action that is not a likely mistake by the predetermined period of time, ignoring the user'"'"'s actions and automatically performing a next action that is not a likely mistake.

40. The article of manufacture of claim 35 wherein the indication is an audiovisual message or signal.

41. The article of manufacture of claim 40 wherein the indication is the highlighting of selected text on the display screen.

42. The article of manufacture of claim 35 wherein the indication is a message or signal that communicates to the user what the next action should be.

43. The article of manufacture of claim 35 wherein an action likely to be a mistake is an action that is not the action that is most likely to occur next.

44. The article of manufacture of claim 35 wherein at least some of the programming code defines text, and at least some of the actions are to cause text defined by the programming code to be electronically read by a text-to-speech reader.

45. An article of manufacture for creating reassembled programming code which defines sequentially ordered tasks to be performed by original programming code, the article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

(a) parsing at least some of the original programming code into a plurality of portions of original programming code, each portion of the original programming code being associated with a task;

(b) associating a tag with each portion of the original programming code, the tag defining sequence information regarding the portion of the original programming code in relation to other portions of the original programming code; and

(c) reassembling the portions of the original programming code including the tags, the reassembled programming code being used to assist a user to perform the tasks defined by the original programming code in a desired sequence.

46. The article of manufacture of claim 45 wherein the original and reassembled programming code is HTML code that defines a portion of text, the plurality of portions of the original programming code being a plurality of sequentially arranged grammatical units that define the portion of the text, each tag thereby being associated with a grammatical unit.

47. The article of manufacture of claim 46 wherein the grammatical units are sentences.

48. The article of manufacture of claim 46 wherein the tags are span tags.

49. The article of manufacture of claim 45 wherein at least some of the tasks are to cause the grammatical units to be electronically read by a text-to-speech reader.

50. The article of manufacture of claim 45 wherein the computer-executable instructions perform a method further comprising:

(d) defining an array index to store the desired task sequence.