User interface and method to facilitate hierarchical specification of queries using an information taxonomy

• US 7,149,983 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2002
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Drucker, Steven, Robbins, Daniel C., Robertson, George G., Cameron, Kim, Olson, Timothy K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao (Kevin)
• Application Number:
  US10/141,233
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 715/762, 715/763, 715/765, 715/805, 715/810, 715/853, 715/854
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3328 using graphical result space presentation or visualisation

Abstract

A user interface, system, and method are disclosed to facilitate specification of queries and displaying corresponding results. The user interface presents the user with dimensions that contain one or more headings arranged according to an information taxonomy, which can vary based on the intended implementation for the system and user interface. A corresponding filter or query is constructed based on the user selecting of one or more headings. The filter is applied to one or more databases to return results that satisfy the filter. The results are presented in the user interface and can include interactive items based on a particular query as well as can correspond to a fully specified task.

Claims

1. A user interface, comprising:

a visualization of a plurality of dimensions that represent an information taxonomy for an associated information/command space, the dimensions including user-selectable headings derived from metadata associated with commands and data items in the information/command space and redundant headings representing metadata at different locations in the information/command taxonomy, the headings include a heading indicating at least one action to perform and at least one device or application relative to which the action is to be performed; and

a results component that visualizes results items as a function of a filter constructed based on at least one selected heading, the visualized results items corresponding to commands and data items metadata that substantially satisfy the filter, the filter including a command filter that sorts commands based on metadata associated with the headings such that at least one of the results items corresponds to a specified task.

2. The user interface of claim 1, at least some of the headings including subheadings arranged according to the information taxonomy to represent hierarchal relationships between the at least some of the headings and associated subheadings.

3. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a language engine operative to derive a phrase as a function of the filter, the phrase being visualized to the user.

4. The user interface of claim 3, the language engine providing natural language feedback to the user as a function of the filter, the natural language feedback indicating inherent structure of the filter to familiarize the user with the information taxonomy.

5. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a language engine that converts language-based user inputs into headings that define the filter, the headings that define the filter being visualized in the user interface by selecting corresponding headings of the filter.

6. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising an analysis system operative to monitor selections and changes requested by plural users and dynamically adjust the taxonomy based on the selections and changes.

7. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a language engine that generates synonyms as a function of a selected heading.

8. The user interface of claim 7, the language generator being associated with an input field, the language generator operative to identify possible synonyms of an input term provided into the input field by visually modifying a visual characteristic of headings that correspond to the possible synonyms.

9. The user interface of claim 1, the results component indicating relationships between results items based on the metadata of items indicating the relationships.

10. The user interface of claim 9, the results component visualizing relationships between related results items presented in the user interface based on at least one of a user-selected results item and a sort criteria of the filter.

11. The user interface of claim 10, the sort criteria of the filter comprising a dimension of the taxonomy from which the filter is constructed, a relationship between related results items that satisfy the filter being represented as a relative location of the related results items to each other in the visualization.

12. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a data manager programmed to at least one of add or modify associated metadata for implicitly related data items in the information/command space based on other metadata of the implicitly related data items indicating a likely relationship between the respective data items.

13. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising an interface manager that enables the user to modify or remove assignable metadata for at least one selected data item in the information/command space.

14. The user interface of claim 1, the user interface further comprising an interface manager programmed to add or modify assignable metadata for the taxonomy and the visualization associated with at least one of the dimensions that represent the taxonomy so as to enable a user to so as to adjust the taxonomy.

15. The user interface of claim 14, the assignable metadata including a heading in at least one dimension of the taxonomy.

16. The user interface of claim 15, the interface manager programmed to add a heading to at least one dimension of the taxonomy corresponding to a user-defined filter constructed based on at least one selected heading in the visualization.

17. The user interface of claim 14, further comprising an analysis component programmed to monitor changes relating to the assignable metadata and to adjust metadata for the taxonomy and the visualization of at least one of the dimensions that represent the taxonomy in response to plural users making similar changes relating to the assignable metadata.

18. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a feedback component programmed to implement feedback relative to the user interface based on user inputs.

19. The user interface of claim 18, the feedback component implementing predictive feedback at the user interface to indicate at least one possible consequence of modifying the filter.

20. The user interface of claim 19, the predictive feedback being graphically represented in relation to at least one visualized heading to indicate at least one of a number of results and a time to retrieve results if the filter were modified by selecting at least one visualized heading.

21. The user interface of claim 20, the feedback component being user-selectable to enable or disable the predictive feedback.

22. The user interface of claim 1, the results component organizing the results items into at least two categories to indicate relevancy of the results items relative to the filter.

23. The user interface of claim 1, the dimensions and results items being presented to the user concurrently to facilitate iterative modifications to the filter in response to selecting or deselecting headings, the results component visualizing corresponding results items to reflect the modifications to the filter.

24. The user interface of claim 1, the visualization further comprising groups of headings arranged into different respective ones of the dimensions, the user interface further comprising a filter generator that generates an expression as a function of selected headings by applying a first operator to headings selected within a given group and by applying a second operator between headings selected in different groups.

25. The user interface of claim 1, the expression further comprising a Boolean expression in which the first operator is an OR operator and the second operator is an AND operator.

26. The user interface of claim 25, the groups of headings are visualized as respective columns of headings.

27. A graphical user interface system, comprising

means for interactively visualizing a plurality of dimensions that represent an information taxonomy for an associated information space/command space;

means for interactively visualizing headings of respective dimensions;

means for selecting at least one heading, the at least one heading derived from metadata associated with commands and data items in the information/command space;

means for filtering data items in the information/command space based on the selected at least one heading;

means for filtering commands based on metadata associated with the at least one heading, such that at least one of a results item corresponds to a specified task; and

means for presenting results items based on the filtered data items that substantially satisfy the filtered data items.

28. A method to facilitate specification of queries or tasks, comprising:

visualizing as a graphical user interface a plurality of dimensions that represent an information taxonomy for an associated information/command space, the dimensions including interactive headings derived from metadata associated with commands and data items in the information/command space;

selecting at least one heading;

filtering data items in at least a portion of the information/command space based on the selected at least one heading;

generating a filter based on which the filtering is performed the filter including an information filter and a command filter; and

presenting results items corresponding to data items that substantially satisfy the filtered data items.

29. The method of claim 28, at least some of the headings including subheadings arranged according to the information taxonomy to represent hierarchal relationships between the at least some of the headings and associated subheadings.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining a natural language phrase that represents the filter and visualizing the phrase to the user.

31. The method of claim 30, providing natural language feedback to the user as a function of the filter, the natural language feedback indicating changes to the filter in response to selecting at least one other of the headings or deselecting the at least one heading.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising converting a language-based user input into headings that define the filter, and visualizing filter criteria in the user interface according the headings that define the filter.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining at least one synonym as a function of a selected heading and presenting a list of the at least one synonym superimposed on the user interface.

34. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining at least one synonym as a function of at least one user input term, identifying possible synonyms of the input term in the information taxonomy, and visually modifying a visual characteristic of headings that correspond to the identified possible synonyms.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising monitoring modifications to headings for a plurality of user interfaces and, in response to detecting plural similar changes to the headings, adjusting the taxonomy to present headings in at least a subset of user interfaces in a manner more suitable to the subset of user interfaces.

36. The method of claim 28, at least part of the information space including a task space, the method comprising sorting commands from the task space based on command parameters of the filter, such that at least one of the results items corresponds to a specified task.

37. The method of claim 28, further comprising indicating at least one relationship between results items based on the metadata of the results items indicating the at least one relationship.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising visualizing relationships between related results items presented in the user interface based on at least one of a user selecting one of the related results items and sorting criteria employed during the filtering.

39. The method of claim 38, the sorting criteria comprising a dimension of the taxonomy from which the filter is constructed, the method further comprising representing a relationship between related results items that satisfy the filter as a relative location of the related results items to each other in a graphical visualization that includes the results items.

40. The method of claim 28, further comprising at least one of adding or modifying associated metadata for at least two data items in the information space based on other metadata of the at least two data items indicating an implicit relationship between the respective data items.

41. The method of claim 28, selectively modifying assignable metadata of at least one selected data item in the information space.

42. The method of claim 41, the assignable metadata including a heading in at least one dimension of the taxonomy.

43. The method of claim 41, further comprising adding a heading to at least one dimension of the taxonomy corresponding to a user-defined filter constructed based on at least one selected heading.

44. The method of claim 41, further comprising monitoring changes relating to the assignable metadata and, in response to a plurality of similar changes being made relating to the assignable metadata, adjusting metadata for the taxonomy and the visualization thereof.

45. The method of claim 28, further comprising implementing feedback relative to the user interface based on user inputs to facilitate iterative.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising implementing predictive feedback and visualizing the predictive feedback at the user interface to indicate at least one possible consequence of modifying the filter.

47. The method of claim 45, graphically representing the predictive feedback visually associated with at least one heading to indicate at least one of a number of results and a time to retrieve results if the filter were modified by adding or removing the at least one heading.

48. The method of claim 28, further comprising organizing the results items into at least two categories to indicate relevancy of the results items relative to the selected at least one heading.

49. The method of claim 28, further comprising redundantly representing metadata at different locations in the taxonomy.

50. The method of claim 28, concurrently presenting the dimensions and the results items to the user to facilitate iterative modifications to the filtering in response to selecting or deselecting headings, and visualizing corresponding results items to reflect modifications to the filter.

51. The method of claim 50, the filter generation further comprising generating the filter as an expression functionally related to selected headings by applying a first operator to headings selected within a given dimension and by applying a second operator between headings selected in different dimensions.

52. The method of claim 51, the first operator being an OR operator and the second operator being an AND operator.

53. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for:

visualizing a plurality of dimensions that represent an interactive information taxonomy for an associated information/command space, the dimensions including headings derived from metadata associated with commands and data items in the information/command space;

selecting at least one heading;

filtering data items in the information/command space based on the selected at least one heading;

generating a filter based on which the filtering is performed, the filter including an information filter and a command filter; and

presenting results items based on the filtered data items that substantially satisfy the filtered data items.