Selection of items based on relative importance

• US 7,809,599 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2006
• Issued: 10/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nascimbeni, Melinda, Andrew, Suzan, Grieb, Doreen N., Haugen, Todd, Knapp, John Eugene
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell; Beth V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLER, ALAN S
• Application Number:
  US11/276,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,691 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/9
• US Class Current: 705/7.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/963 Calendar or scheduling

Abstract

Methods and systems for prioritizing items and displaying those items in a single view of a personal information management (PIM) application are disclosed. PIM software can prioritize items for display in the single view based on a comparison of the date of creation of the item versus the amount of time remaining to complete the item. PIM software may also take into account a priority level of the item. As an item has less time remaining as compared to the date of creation, the likelihood the item will be included in the single display increases. Any item whose due date is ‘today’ may be included in the single view. Items without due dates might not ever appear in the single view. Users can thus get a quick overview of items that need to be taken care of that day, without being inundated with items that can wait until another day.

Claims

1. A method for use on a computer executing computer executable instructions for selecting a plurality of heterogeneous items of various types for display in an immediate view in a user interface of an information management application, said immediate view capable of displaying a preset number of heterogeneous items of various types, said user interface displayed on a computer display device connected to the computer, said method comprising:

a) establishing user defined headings for the immediate view according to chunky time, wherein chunky time is a general time of day corresponding to when items should be completed and wherein each heading indicates when the items listed thereunder should be completed;

b) storing items in a database, each item associated with a creation date, a due date, and a priority level, wherein the priority level is based on previously user defined priorities and further wherein not all items in the database have values for each of the due date and the priority level;

c) selecting from the stored items in the database N items for display by;

analyzing each selected item based in part on a present date and a comparison of creation date, due date, and priority level to determine a relative importance of each selected item;

ranking the selected items based on the relative importance to form a ranked list;

selecting N items from the top of the ranked list based on the preset number, wherein the preset number is the maximum number of items capable of being displayed in the immediate view and further wherein the selected N items may be less than or equal in number to the preset number;

d) displaying the selected N items in the immediate view under the user defined heading corresponding to the chunky time based on when it is determined the item should be completed, wherein;

i) if the selected N items are equal to the present number, then displaying the selected N items in the immediate view, wherein the displayed selected items in the immediate view include at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event, wherein in each item is displayed according to its corresponding chunky time;

or

ii) if the selected N items are less than the preset number, then displaying the selected N items in the immediate view, wherein the displayed selected items in the immediate view include at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event, wherein in each item is displayed according to its corresponding chunky time and additionally displaying in the immediate view one or more items not having a due date;

e) repeating c and d on a predetermined basis in order to update the immediate view.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step further comprises, for each item, adjusting the relevance when the each item has a predetermined priority level.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the relevance comprises a percentage of time remaining for each item from the creation date to the due date based on the present date.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of items has a corresponding priority level, and wherein the method further comprises elevating the priority level as the due date approaches.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of items comprises items corresponding to a plurality of users.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying with the immediate view daily weather information corresponding to the present date wherein each item specifying a type of weather preferred indicating that the item is weather-dependent.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving the daily weather information for the present date;

displaying an alert for each item in subset of the plurality of items when the daily weather information indicates weather contrary to the specified type of weather preferred of said item.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an RSS feed with the immediate view.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

f) receiving an electronic communication from a member of the group to which the user of the information management application belongs; and

g) displaying on the computer display device in the immediate view, information corresponding to the received electronic communication based on the at least one item related to the group being listed in the immediate view.

10. One or more computer readable storage media storing data comprising:

a database of a plurality of items of various types, each item having a corresponding creation date and due date;

computer executable instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for selecting a subset of the plurality of items of various types for display in immediate view provided by an information manager software application, said immediate view capable of displaying a preset number of heterogeneous items of various types, said method comprising steps of;

a) establishing user defined headings for the immediate view according to chunky time, wherein chunky time is a general time of day corresponding to when items should be completed and wherein each heading indicates when the items listed thereunder should be completed;

b) storing items in a database, each item associated with a creation date, a due date, and a priority level, wherein the priority level is based on previously user defined priorities and further wherein not all items in the database have values for each of the due date and the priority level, and wherein each item specifies a type of weather preferred indicating that the item is weather-dependent;

c) selecting from the stored items in the database N items for display by;

analyzing each selected item based in part on a present date and a comparison of creation date, due date, and priority level to determine a relative importance of each selected item;

ranking the selected items based on the relative importance to form a ranked list;

selecting N items from the top of the ranked list based on the preset number, wherein the preset number is the maximum number of items capable of being displayed in the immediate view and further wherein the selected N items may be less than or equal in number to the preset number;

d) displaying the selected N items in the immediate view under the user defined heading corresponding to the chunky time based on when it is determined the item should be completed, wherein;

i) if the selected N items are equal to the present number, then displaying the selected N items in the immediate view, wherein the displayed selected items in the immediate view include at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event, wherein in each item is displayed according to its corresponding chunky time;

or

ii) if the selected N items are less than the preset number, then displaying the selected N items in the immediate view, wherein the displayed selected items in the immediate view include at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event, wherein in each item is displayed according to its corresponding chunky time and additionally displaying in the immediate view one or more items not having a due date;

e) receiving daily weather information for the present date; and

f) displaying an alert for each item in the immediate view wherein the daily weather information indicates weather contrary to the specified type of weather preferred of said item;

f) repeating c and d on a predetermined basis in order to update the immediate view.

11. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein said selecting step further comprises, for each item, adjusting the relevance when the each item has a predetermined priority level.

12. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the relevance comprises a percentage of time remaining for each item from the creation date to the due date based on the present date.

13. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the plurality of items of various types displayed in the immediate view comprise at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event.

14. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the plurality of items of various types comprise items corresponding to a plurality of users.

15. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein the selecting step comprises selecting all items having a due date equal to the present date.