System and Method for Creating and Implementing Community Defined Presentation Structures

• US 20080162310A1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Mori, Kenichi, Marr, Justin C., Creed, Anthony L., Quinn, Christopher N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,756 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

A presentation configuration system may receive metadata from multiple users utilizing tax preparation applications. The metadata may be tags or labels of interview segments of the tax preparation applications. The presentation configuration system may create community defined presentation structures from the metadata such that the community defined presentation structure includes an organization of interview segments within a tax preparation application. The community defined presentation structure may indicate how interview segments of a tax preparation application should be presented to a user. Furthermore, a tax preparation application may provide a user (e.g., a taxpayer) with multiple options corresponding to community defined presentation structures. The tax preparation application may receive a selection of one of the options from the user. Thus, the tax preparation application may present the tax preparation interview segments of the tax preparation application to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the option selected.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises program instructions executable by the processor to;

receive metadata from a plurality of users, wherein the metadata comprises one or more user defined tags associated with one or more tax preparation interview segments of a tax preparation application;

create a plurality of community defined presentation structures from the metadata, wherein one or more of the community defined presentation structures define an organization of the one or more tax preparation interview segments within the tax preparation application; and

provide one or more of the community defined presentation structures to a particular user'"'"'s instance of the tax preparation application in response to a request, wherein the one or more community defined presentation structures are configured to be used by the particular user'"'"'s instance of the tax preparation application for presenting, according to a particular organization of interview segments, interview segments of the particular user'"'"'s instance of the tax preparation application to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the community defined presentation structures include a mapping of the community defined presentation structure to a default presentation structure, wherein the community defined presentation structures are different than the default presentation structure.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein to provide the community defined presentation structure further comprises providing a database of community defined presentation structures that may be accessed by the one or more tax preparation applications.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said organization is a data structure representing a hierarchical tree structure.

5. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises program instructions executable by the processor to;

provide a user with a plurality of presentation options each corresponding to one or more community defined presentation structures, wherein each community defined presentation structure defines an organization of tax preparation interview segments within a tax preparation application, wherein the organization is determined from metadata comprising user defined tags associated with the tax preparation interview segments;

receive a response from the user, wherein the response indicates a selection of one of the plurality of presentation options; and

present the tax preparation interview segments to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the response from the user.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising providing the user with a search mechanism, wherein the search mechanism enables the user to search for one or more search terms among metadata of the tax preparation interview segments.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising

determining preparation interview segments that are associated with matching metadata, wherein the matching metadata contains one or more of the search terms;

providing to the user, the preparation interview segments that are associated with the matching metadata.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the organization of tax preparations interview segments within the tax preparation application is a data structure representing a hierarchical tree structure.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein said community defined presentation structure is a data structure, wherein said presenting further comprises extracting from the data structure an order in which the interview segments should be presented to the user.

10. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving metadata from a plurality of users, wherein the metadata comprises one or more user defined tags associated with one or more tax preparation interview segments of a tax preparation application;

creating a plurality of community defined presentation structures from the metadata, wherein one or more of the community defined presentation structures define an organization of the one or more tax preparation interview segments within the tax preparation application; and

providing one or more of the community defined presentation structures to a particular user'"'"'s instance of the tax preparation application in response to a request, wherein the one or more community defined presentation structures are configured to be used by the particular user'"'"'s instance of the tax preparation application for presenting, according to a particular organization of interview segments, interview segments of the particular user'"'"'s instance of the tax preparation application to the user.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 10, wherein the community defined presentation structures include a mapping of the community defined presentation structure to a default presentation structure, wherein the community defined presentation structures are different than the default presentation structure.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 10, wherein said providing the community defined presentation structure further comprises providing a database of community defined presentation structures that may be accessed by the one or more tax preparation applications.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 10, wherein said organization is a data structure representing a hierarchical tree structure.

14. A computer implemented method, comprising:

providing a user with a plurality of presentation options each corresponding to one or more community defined presentation structures, wherein each community defined presentation structure defines an organization of tax preparation interview segments within a tax preparation application, wherein the organization is determined from metadata comprising user defined tags associated with the tax preparation interview segments;

receiving a response from the user, wherein the response indicates a selection of one of the plurality of presentation options; and

presenting the tax preparation interview segments to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the response from the user.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14, further comprising providing the user with a search mechanism, wherein the search mechanism enables the user to search for one or more search terms among metadata of the tax preparation interview segments.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, further comprising

determining preparation interview segments that are associated with matching metadata, wherein the matching metadata contains one or more of the search terms;

providing to the user, the preparation interview segments that are associated with the matching metadata.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the organization of tax preparations interview segments within the tax preparation application is a data structure representing a hierarchical tree structure.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein said community defined presentation structure is a data structure, wherein said presenting further comprises extracting from the data structure an order in which the interview segments should be presented to the user.

19. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising program instructions computer-executable to implement:

receiving metadata from a plurality of users, wherein the metadata comprises one or more user defined tags associated with one or more return preparation interview segments of a return preparation application;

creating a plurality of community defined presentation structures from the metadata, wherein one or more of the community defined presentation structures define an organization of the one or more return preparation interview segments within the return preparation application; and

providing one or more of the community defined presentation structures to a particular user'"'"'s instance of the return preparation application in response to a request, wherein the one or more community defined presentation structures are configured to be used by the particular user'"'"'s instance of the return preparation application for presenting, according to a particular organization of interview segments, interview segments of the particular user'"'"'s instance of the return preparation application to the user.

20. The medium of claim 19, wherein the community defined presentation structures include a mapping of the community defined presentation structure to a default presentation structure, wherein the community defined presentation structures are different than the default presentation structure.

21. The medium of claim 19, wherein said providing the community defined presentation structure further comprises providing a database of community defined presentation structures that may be accessed by the one or more return preparation applications.

22. The medium of claim 19, wherein said organization is a data structure representing a hierarchical tree structure.

23. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising program instructions computer-executable to implement:

providing a user with a plurality of presentation options each corresponding to one or more community defined presentation structures, wherein each community defined presentation structure defines an organization of return preparation interview segments within a return preparation application, wherein the organization is determined from metadata comprising user defined tags associated with the return preparation interview segments;

receiving a response from the user, wherein the response indicates a selection of one of the plurality of presentation options; and

presenting the return preparation interview segments to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the response from the user.

24. The medium of claim 23, further comprising providing the user with a search mechanism, wherein the search mechanism enables the user to search for one or more search terms among metadata of the return preparation interview segments.

25. The medium of claim 24, further comprising

determining preparation interview segments that are associated with matching metadata, wherein the matching metadata contains one or more of the search terms;

providing to the user, the preparation interview segments that are associated with the matching metadata.

26. The medium of claim 23, wherein the organization of return preparations interview segments within the return preparation application is a data structure representing a hierarchical tree structure.

27. The medium of claim 23, wherein said community defined presentation structure is a data structure, wherein said presenting further comprises extracting from the data structure an order in which the interview segments should be presented to the user.