System and method for prioritized interface design

• US 7,308,288 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2003
• Issued: 12/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Joseph, Kurt M., Pasquale, Theodore, Mills, Scott H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferguson; Keith
• Application Number:
  US10/646,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20050054384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,572 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/414.1, 455/566, 455/550.1, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/575.1, 455/90.3, 455/422.1, 455/403, 455/500, 455/517, 455/419, 455/420, 455/73, 455/90.2, 345/173, 345/168, 345/169, 379/355.02, 379/433.01, 379/433.04, 710 15- 18
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72472 wherein the items are sorted according to specific criteria, e.g. frequency of use

Abstract

A system and method for prioritized interface design are disclosed. In one embodiment of a system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure, a wireless-enabled device may include a display, a user input mechanism, and a housing component that at least partially defines an internal cavity. The device may have several engines including a display engine that can initiate presentation of a menu that has several selectable items displayed in respective menu positions. The device may also include a metric engine that tracks some selection metric for the selectable items and a priority engine that determines a prioritization level for the selectable items. In some embodiments, the prioritization level may be related to a selection metric. The device may also have a mapping engine that modifies assigned menu positions for the selectable items in response to changes in the prioritization level of the items.

Claims

1. A prioritizing interface system comprising:

a wireless-enabled device comprising a housing component, a display and a user input mechanism, the housing component at least partially defining an internal cavity;

a display engine located within the internal cavity and operable to initiate presentation of a menu comprising a plurality of selectable items displayed in respective menu positions, the menu further comprising a menu locator indicating a location of a current menu within a multi-level menu structure, the menu locator including a first indicator of a position within a first level of the multi-level menu structure and including a second indicator of a position within a second level of the multi-level menu structure;

a metric engine communicatively coupled to the user input mechanism and located within the internal cavity, the metric engine operable to track at least one selection metric for at least one of the selectable items;

a priority engine communicatively coupled to the metric engine and located within the internal cavity, the priority engine operable to determine a prioritization level for the at least one selectable item, the prioritization level at least partially based on the at least one selection metric; and

a mapping engine communicatively coupled to the priority engine and located within the internal cavity, the mapping engine operable to modify an assigned menu position for the at least one selectable item in response to a changed prioritization level for the at least one selectable item.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of secondary selectable items displayable by the display engine in response to receipt of a user input identifying the at least one selectable item, and wherein the menu locator includes a third indicator of a position within a third level of the multi-level menu structure.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the metric engine is further operable to track a selection metric for at least one of the plurality of secondary selectable items, wherein the first indicator, the second indicator, and the third indicator are displayed as a concatenated data item having at least one delimiter between each of the first indicator, the second indicator, and the third indicator.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory located within the internal cavity; and

a data store resident on the memory, the data store comprising a template with fields representing assignable menu positions, at least one of the fields linked to the at least one selectable item.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the mapping engine links the at least one selectable item to a different field to modify the assigned menu position for the at least one selectable item.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless-enabled device is selected from the group consisting of a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a notebook computer, an audio player, a video player, and a gaming device.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory located within the internal cavity;

a plurality of secondary selectable items displayable by the display engine in response to receipt of a user input identifying the at least one selectable item;

a primary template having fields representing assignable menu positions, at least one of the fields linked to the at least one selectable item, the at least one of the fields additionally linked to the secondary template;

a secondary template having fields representing dependent menu positions linked to the respective secondary selectable items; and

a data store resident on the memory, the data store comprising the primary template and the secondary template.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the mapping engine links the at least one selectable item to a different field of the primary template to modify the assigned menu position for the at least one selectable item.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a preset display template linking the plurality of selectable items to fixed menu positions.

10. The prioritizing interface system of claim 1, wherein the display engine initiates presentation of the menu according to a menu address entered utilizing the user input mechanism.

11. The prioritizing interface system of claim 1, wherein the mapping engine modifies the assigned menu position for the at least one selectable item in near real-time or after the wireless-enabled device has been restarted.

12. The prioritizing interface system of claim 1, wherein the priority engine determines the prioritization level for the at least one selectable item based on different weights assigned to each of a plurality of selection metrics, and wherein the plurality of selection metrics include frequency of selection, timing of selection, preceding selection, following selection, or any combination thereof.

13. An interface prioritization method comprising:

presenting a menu within a graphical user interface of a wireless-enabled device, the menu comprising an available menu option displayed in a menu location;

receiving a user input selecting the available menu option;

tracking a selection metric for the available menu option;

using the selection metric to determine an appropriate menu location for the available menu option;

displaying the available menu option in the determined appropriate menu location in a first mode of operation when a metric-based menu display setting is selected; and

displaying the available menu option in a preset menu location in a second mode of operation when a preset display setting is selected.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising storing a presentation template in memory local to the wireless-enabled device, the presentation template comprising fields representing assignable menu positions, wherein a first field represents the menu location and a second field represents a modified location, wherein one of the first mode of operation or the second mode of operation is selectable by a user.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

removing a link associating the first field to the available menu option;

linking the available menu option to the second field; and

presenting a modified menu with the available menu option in the modified location.

16. The interface prioritization method of claim 14, wherein the user can toggle between the first mode of operation and the second mode of operation, and wherein the preset display setting of the second mode of operation is associated with one of a factory setting or a manually customized setting.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the menu further comprises an other available menu option displayed in a different menu location, further comprising;

receiving a user input selecting the other menu option;

tracking the selection metric for the other menu option; and

using the selection metric for the other menu option to determine an appropriate menu location for the other menu option.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing a presentation template in memory local to the wireless-enabled device, the presentation template comprising fields representing assignable menu positions, wherein a first field represents the menu location and a second field represents a modified location;

removing a link associating the first field to the available menu option;

linking the second field to the available menu option; and

additionally linking the second field to a secondary template having fields representing dependent menu positions linked to secondary selectable items depending upon the available menu option.