High density visualizations for threaded information

• US 7,007,226 B1
• Filed: 09/09/1999
• Issued: 02/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Drucker, Steven M., Smith, Marc A., Xiong, Rebecca
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Application Number:
  US09/392,468
• Time in Patent Office: 2,364 Days
• Field of Search: 707/514, 707/526, 345/420, 345/440, 715/514, 715/526, 715/500
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

High-density computer display visualization formats provide improved visualization of large amounts of threaded information. These visualization formats are suitable for a wide variety of threaded information environments including newsgroups, threaded Web discussions, chats, e-mail inboxes, etc. In one implementation, the threaded message visualization represents each post with a generally one-dimensional or narrow entry line. The entry lines are horizontal and arranged vertically in substantially the same indented threading arrangement as the text of a conventional prior art visualization. In other implementations, the appearance (e.g., color), length, and position of entry lines can represent additional selected information while maintaining the generally one-dimensional character of the entry lines.

Claims

1. A method for presenting threaded information entries as a graphical representation of threaded information rendered on a display interface, the method comprising:

identifying a structure associated a plurality of threaded information entries, the threaded information entries including top-level entries and other threaded information entries;

rendering top-level entries as a first set of substantially linear-shaped graphical representations without text on the display interface; and

for each top-level threaded information entry, rendering other threaded information entries corresponding to the top-level threaded information entry as a second set of substantially linear-shaped graphical representations without text below the graphical representation representing the top-level entry, the second set of substantially linear-shaped graphical representations representing the other corresponding threaded information entries and being indented in accordance with the identified structure.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the threaded information entries include plural fields of entry-information and in which the entry lines are rendered with variations corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

3. The method of claim 2 in which individual entry lines are rendered with colors corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of the entry information for the individual threaded information entries.

4. The method of claim 3 in which each information entry has an originator and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relate to the originator of the information entry and the originator is indicated in the entry line for the information entry.

5. The method of claim 4 in which plural information entries may share a common originator and in which the color of an entry line corresponds to the number of information entries provided by the originator of the entry line.

6. The method of claim 3 in which each information entry has an associated time and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relate to the associated time of the information entry and the associated time is indicated by positioning of the entry line for the information entry.

7. The method of claim 3 in which the entry lines are rendered with lengths corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the entry lines are rendered at positions corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

9. The method of claim 2 in which the entry lines are rendered with lengths corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

10. The method of claim 9 in which each information entry includes an amount of information and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relates to the amount of information in the information entry.

11. The method of claim 9 in which the entry lines are rendered at positions corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

12. The method of claim 2 in which the entry lines are rendered at positions corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

13. The method of claim 12 in which each information entry has an associated time and in which the one or more predefined field of entry information relate to the associated time of the information entry and the associated time is indicated by positioning of the entry line for the information entry.

14. The method of claim 1 in which the threaded information includes threads that begin with top-level information entries, the graphical representation further comprising text information only about top-level information entries.

15. The method of claim 1 in which the entry lines are horizontal.

16. The method of claim 1 in which the entry lines are arranged vertically.

17. The method of claim 1 in which the threaded information includes threads that begin with top-level information entries and in which the entry indicators representing the top-level information entries include spacing between them transverse to the linear-shaped graphical representations.

18. The method of claim 17 in which plural ones of the entry indicators are positioned together to represent a thread of threaded information and in which the entry indicators representing the thread include no spacing between them transverse to the linear-shaped graphical representations.

19. The method of claim 1 in which plural ones of the entry indicators are positioned together to represent a thread of threaded information and in which the entry indicators representing the thread include no spacing between them transverse to the linear-shaped graphical representations.

20. The method of claim 1 in which the entry lines associated with the information entries of a user-selected thread are replaced with enlarged entry bars.

21. The method of claim 20 in which the threaded information includes threads that begin with top-level information entries and in which the visualization further comprises at least one of either text information or any other perceptible character-based representation only about a top-level information entry of the selected thread.

22. The method of claim 20 in which user-selected enlarged entry bars are distinguished from other enlarged entry bars.

23. At least one computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processing system, cause the processing system to implement threaded information visualization software providing a visualization of threaded information that includes plural threaded information entries, the at least one medium comprising:

rendering engine instructions for

identifying a structure associated a plurality of threaded information entries, the threaded information entries including top-level entries and other threaded information entries;

rendering top-level entries as a first set of substantially linear-shaped graphical representations without text on the display interface; and

for each top-level threaded information entry, rendering other threaded information entries corresponding to the top-level threaded information entry as a second set of substantially linear-shaped graphical representations without text below the graphical representation representing the top-level entry, the second set of substantially linear-shaped graphical representations representing the other corresponding threaded information entries and being indented in accordance with the identified structure.

24. The medium of claim 23 further comprising user interface control instructions for allowing a user to select from among plural visualization formats that each include an indented threading arrangement of the substantially linear-shaped graphical representations.

25. The medium of claim 23 in which the threaded information entries include plural fields of entry information and in which individual entry lines are rendered with variations corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of the entry information for the individual threaded information entries.

26. The medium of claim 25 in which the entry lines are rendered with colors corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

27. The medium of claim 26 in which each information entry has an originator and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relate to the originator of the information entry and the originator is indicated in the entry line for the information entry.

28. The medium of claim 27 in which plural information entries may share a common originator and in which the color of an entry line corresponds to the number of information entries provided by the originator of the entry line.

29. The medium of claim 25 in which each information entry has an associated time and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relate to the associated time of the information entry and the associated time is indicated by positioning of the entry line for the information entry.

30. The medium of claim 25 in which the entry lines are rendered with lengths corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

31. The medium of claim 30 in which the entry lines are rendered at positions corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

32. The medium of claim 25 in which the entry lines are rendered with lengths corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

33. The medium of claim 32 in which each information entry includes an amount of information and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relate to the amount of information in the information entry.

34. The medium of claim 32 in which the entry lines are rendered at positions corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

35. The medium of claim 25 in which the entry lines are rendered at lateral positions corresponding to information in one or more of the predefined fields of entry information.

36. The medium of claim 35 in which each information entry has an associated time and in which the one or more predefined fields of entry information relate to the associated time of the information entry and the associated time is indicated by positioning of the entry line for the information entry.

37. The medium of claim 23 in which the entry lines are horizontal.

38. The medium of claim 23 in which the entry lines are arranged vertically.

39. The medium of claim 23 in which the threaded information includes threads that begin with top-level information entries, the visualization further comprising at least one of either text information or any other perceptible character-based representation only about top-level information entries.

40. The medium of claim 23 in which the entry lines associated with the information entries of a user-selected thread are replaced with enlarged entry bars.

41. The medium of claim 40 in which the threaded information includes threads that begin with top-level information entries and in which the visualization further comprises at least one of either text information or any other perceptible character-based representation only about a top-level information entry of the selected thread.

42. The medium of claim 40 in which user-selected enlarged entry bars are distinguished from other enlarged entry bars.

43. A computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

identifying a set of threads associated with a newsgroup;

determining a structure associated with the set of threads;

rendering, on a graphical display, top-level threads within the set of threads as a first set of generally one-dimensional entry lines, each one-dimensional entry line having a thickness insufficient to render text characters;

for each top-level thread, rendering, on the graphical display, inferior threads corresponding to the top-level thread as a second set of one-dimensional entry lines below the entry line associated with the top-level thread, the second set of one-dimensional entry lines associated with the inferior threads and being indented in accordance with the determined structure; and

in response to a selection to highlight at least one of the one-dimensional entry lines in the second set,

identifying the inferior thread associated with the highlighted entry line;

identifying the top-level thread associated with the identified inferior thread; and

displaying information about the identified top-level thread.

44. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, the steps further comprising indenting the second set of one-dimensional entry lines associated with the inferior threads in accordance with the times at which the inferior threads were posted.

45. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, the steps further comprising rendering each one-dimensional entry line with a length corresponding to the amount of information included in the thread associated with the one-dimensional entry line.

46. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, the steps further comprising rendering each one-dimensional entry line with a color corresponding to at least one of a characteristic of the author of the thread associated with the line or the age of the thread.

47. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, wherein information displayed about the identified top-level thread associated with the highlighted one-dimensional entry line includes a text label.

48. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, the steps further comprising in response to the selection to highlight at least one of the one-dimensional lines in the first set,

identifying the top-level thread associated with the highlighted one-dimensional line;

identifying the inferior threads associated with the identified top-level thread;

displaying the inferior threads as selectable bars; and

in response to a selection of at least one selectable bar, displaying the information associated with the inferior thread corresponding to the selected bar.

49. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 43, wherein the threads in the set include at least one of messages or posts associated with the newsgroup.