Information environment map

• US 9,299,170 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2015
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Domo, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Domo, Inc.
• Inventors: Winters, Alan Adams, Moon, Shaun Richard, Green, Benjamin
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, James A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mazumder, Tapas
• Application Number:
  US14/607,761
• Time in Patent Office: 426 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/003 Reconstruction from projections, e.g. tomography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/12 Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/026 Control of mixing and/or overlay of colours in general G09G5/022 and G09G5/024 take precedence

Abstract

Information is presented on a map that resembles a city map, with related information grouped into distinct “neighborhoods.” Such a display scheme takes advantage of spatial cognition in order to provide an organizational and presentational scheme by which users can more easily remember where to look for and find the right information. Metadata, notifications, and/or other auxiliary information can be presented alongside or superimposed upon the data itself.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a hardware processor,

receiving quantitative data comprising a plurality of data elements;

establishing relationships among the data elements, wherein establishing the relationships comprises determining data element proximity values for the plurality of data elements, wherein the determined data element proximity values quantify a degree to which respective data elements are related to other data elements of the plurality of data elements based on data element attributes that are independent of location;

associating the plurality of data elements with locations within a map that represents an area comprising a range of locations, wherein associating the data elements with respective locations within the map comprises arranging locations of the data elements such that a proximity of the locations associated with the respective data elements within the map correspond to the determined data element proximity values;

rendering a view of the map, wherein the rendered view of the map comprises graphical representations of the respective data elements at the locations associated with the data elements within the map; and

displaying the rendered view of the map on a display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the quantitative data represents company metrics.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data elements each represent data associated with a respective entity, and wherein associating data elements with respective locations further comprises grouping data elements associated with respective entities within the map.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the map comprises a representation of a geographic area, and wherein the geographic area corresponds to one of a real-world geographic area, a fictional geographic area, and an arbitrary geographic area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the topography for the map comprises establishing one of a two-dimensional topography and a three-dimensional topography.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein associating data elements with locations within the map comprises positioning the graphical representations of the data elements in relative proximity to one another within the map based on the determined data element proximity values determined for the data elements.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input representing an interaction with the rendered view of the map displayed on the display device, wherein the interaction corresponds to a location within the map; and

displaying a pop-up indicator on the rendered view of the map comprising a data element corresponding to the location in response to receiving the user input.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input representing an interaction with the rendered view of the map displayed on the display device, wherein the interaction corresponds to a location within the map; and

displaying a pop-up indicator on the rendered view of the map comprising at least one of a description of a visualization and a preview of a visualization for a data element corresponding to the location in response to receiving the user input.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input representing an interaction with the rendered view of the map displayed on the display device, wherein the interaction corresponds to selection of a location within the map; and

displaying a visualization for a data element corresponding to the location on the rendered view of the map in response to receiving the user input.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input representing an interaction with the rendered view of the map displayed on the display device, wherein the interaction corresponds to selection of a location within the map; and

displaying, on the rendered view of the map, at least one of metadata and a notification corresponding to the location in response to receiving the user input.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a search term; and

displaying an indication identifying a location within the rendered view of the map that corresponds to a graphical representation of a data element having data matching the search term.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the search term matches two or more of the plurality of data elements, and wherein displaying the indication comprises superimposing a visual indicator on the rendered view of the map that identifies locations of graphical representations of each of the two or more data elements within the rendered view of the map.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication comprises a visual cue for display on the rendered view of the map, and wherein the visual cue comprises one or more of a visual overlay for display over the rendered view of the map and a color-coded visual overlay for display over the rendered view of the map.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking user interaction with regions of the rendered view of the map, wherein the regions comprise graphical representations of two or more data elements;

adjusting the determined data element proximity values to indicate an increase in the degree to which the two or more data elements are related.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the rendered view of the map on the display device comprises transmitting a web page comprising the rendered view of the map to a client computing device over a network for display on a display device of the client computing device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the client computing device is configured to display the web page comprising the rendered view of the map on the display device by use of a browser application.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the view of the map comprises generating overlay metadata defining the graphical representations of the plurality of data elements, and wherein displaying the rendered view of the map comprises combining the map with the overlay metadata.

18. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium; and

computer program code, encoded on the non-transitory storage medium, wherein the computer program code is configured to cause at least one hardware processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving quantitative data comprising a plurality of data elements;

establishing relationships among the data elements, wherein establishing the relationships comprises,

determining data element proximity values for the plurality of data elements, wherein the determined data element proximity values quantify a degree to which each of the plurality of data elements is related to others of the plurality of data elements, and

wherein determining the data element proximity values comprises comparing characteristics of the plurality of data elements that are independent of location;

assigning each of the data elements a location within a map, the map representing a range of locations, wherein the assigned locations are arranged within the map such that a proximity of the locations assigned to the data elements within the map correspond with the determined data element proximity values of the data elements;

rendering a view of the map, wherein the rendered view of the map comprises graphical representations of the respective data elements at the locations assigned to the data elements; and

causing a display device to display the rendered view of the map.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the map comprises a representation of a geographic area, and wherein locations within the map correspond to regions of the geographic area, and wherein the geographic area corresponds to one of a real-world geographic area, a fictional geographic area, and an arbitrary geographic area.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

receiving user input representing an interaction with the rendered view of the map, wherein the user input corresponds to a location within the rendered view of the map, and

displaying a pop-up indicator comprising at least one of a description of a visualization and a preview of a visualization for a data element corresponding to the location on the rendered view of the map.

21. The computer program product of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

receiving user input representing an interaction with the rendered view of the map, wherein the user input corresponds to a location within the rendered view of the map, and

displaying a visualization for a data element corresponding to the location on the rendered view of the map.

22. The computer program product of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

receiving user input comprising at least one search term; and

identifying at least one location within the rendered view of the map that contains a graphical representation of a data element having data matching the at least one search term.

23. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein causing the display device to display the rendered view of the map comprises transmitting the rendered view of the map to a client computing device over a network, and wherein the rendered view of the map comprises markup data for display by an application operating on the client computing device.

24. A system, comprising:

a server computing device comprising a hardware processor and a network interface, wherein the a hardware processor is configured to;

receive quantitative data comprising a plurality of data elements;

establish relationships among the data elements, wherein establishing relationships between the data elements comprises determining proximity values for each of the data elements, wherein the proximity values determined for a data element quantify a relationship between the data element and other data elements of the plurality of data elements based on characteristics of the data elements that are independent of location;

arrange graphical representations of the data elements within a map, wherein arranging the graphical representations comprises, selecting placement location for the graphical representations of the data elements based on the determined proximity values between the respective data elements,

render a view of the map, wherein the rendered view of the map comprises the arranged graphical representations of the data elements; and

provide for displaying the rendered view of the map on a client computing device by transmitting data comprising the rendered view of the map to the client computing device by use of the network interface.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the map comprises a representation of a geographic area, and wherein locations within the map correspond to regions of the geographic area, and wherein the geographic area is one of a real-world geographic area, a fictional geographic area, an arbitrary geographic area.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:

calculate a relative metric for the respective data elements, wherein the relative metric of a data element corresponds to one or more of an amount of data associated with the data element, a number of metrics associated with the data element, and a number of visualizations of the data element, and

adapt the graphical representations of the data elements in accordance with the determined relative metrics of the data elements.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the hardware processor is configured to render a pop-up indicator comprising at least one of a description of a visualization and a preview of a visualization for a data element corresponding to a designated location within the rendered view of the map in response to a user input corresponding to the designated location.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to render a visualization for a data element corresponding to the location in response to a user input corresponding to a graphical representation of the data element on the rendered view of the map.

29. The system of claim 24, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to render an indication identifying at least one location within the rendered view of the map that contains data matching a search term.

30. The system of claim 24, wherein the hardware processor is configured to render the view of the map by generating overlay data for display over the map, and wherein the transmitted data comprises the overlay data.