Presaging and surfacing interactivity within data visualizations

• US 9,330,503 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2009
• Issued: 05/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mital, Vijay, Rubin, Darryl E., Wolf, Jason A., Payne, John A., Green, David G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Levy, Amy M
• Application Number:
  US12/488,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20100325578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,510 Days
• Field of Search: 715/848, 715/805
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts

Abstract

The use of visual cues associated with rendered visual items to cue a user on whether a rendered visual item has interactive capability and/or what type of interaction is possible with that visual item. The visual items may be rendered in a data driven way with each constructed using a corresponding parameterized view component. The parameter(s) are populated by data, perhaps by model variables obtained from an analytical model. The parameters then drive logic associated with the view component to thereby construct a visual item which may then be rendered. The rendering engine then renders the visual item with the visual cue. The user may then interact with the rendered visual item. Such interaction might cause some external action to occur, might change which visual items are displayed, and/or might change a value of the input parameters of one or more view components used to generate displayed visual items.

Claims

1. A method for interacting with a user interface in a computer system, the method comprising:

providing, to an analytical model executed by the computer system, input data to drive a plurality of parameterized view components, each parameterized view component having one or more input parameters, one or more output parameters, and logic to construct a corresponding data-driven visual item;

receiving, from the analytical model, output data generated from the input data;

using, by the computing system, the output data received from the analytical model to construct the plurality of corresponding data-driven visual items;

rendering, by the computing system, the plurality of data-driven visual items on a display;

determining, by the computer system, that at least one of the data-driven visual items on the display has a type of interactivity enabled for the data-driven visual item;

providing, by the computing system, a visual cue for the enabled interactivity for the data-driven visual item;

detecting, by the computing system, a first user interaction with the data-driven visual item having the enabled interactivity, the first user interaction not performing the enabled interactivity;

providing, by the computing system and in response to the first user interaction, an indication of what a result of the enabled interactivity would be if the enabled interactivity were performed;

detecting, by the computing system, a second user interaction with the data-driven visual item, the second user interaction performing the enabled interactivity; and

rendering, by the computing system and in response to the second user interaction, the result of the enabled interactivity;

wherein providing the indication of what the result of the enabled interactivity would be comprises;

identifying, using the analytical model, a relationship between input and output parameters associated with the enabled interactivity of the data-driven visual item;

determining one or more values for the input parameters of the enabled interactivity based on the first user interaction;

completing, by the analytical model, a contingency solve operation for the output parameters of the enabled interactivity to determine how the enabled interactivity would alter the display of another one of the data-driven visual items on the display; and

providing, by the computing system, a preview of the altered display.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the type of interactivity is an edit interactivity that changes data in a manner that one or more parameter values of one or more of the parameterized visual components changes.

3. The method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the one or more parameter values change by changing values of model parameters used to generate the one or more parameter values.

4. A physical computer program product comprising one or more physical computer readable hardware storage devices having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processor of a computing system, causes the computing system to:

instantiate an analytical model;

provide, to the analytical model, input data to drive a plurality of parameterized view components, each parameterized view component having one or more input parameters, one or more output parameters, and logic to construct a corresponding data-driven visual item;

receive, from the analytical model, output data generated from the input data;

use the output data received from the analytical model to construct the plurality of corresponding data-driven visual items;

render the plurality of data-driven visual items on a display;

determine that at least one of the data-driven visual items on the display has a type of interactivity enabled for the data-driven visual item;

provide a visual cue for the enabled interactivity for the data-driven visual item;

detect a first user interaction with the data-driven visual item having the enabled interactivity, the first user interaction not performing the enabled interactivity;

provide, in response to the first user interaction, an indication of what a result of the enabled interactivity would be if the enabled interactivity were performed;

detect a second user interaction with the data-driven visual item, the second user interaction performing the enabled interactivity; and

render, in response to the second user interaction, the result of the enabled interactivity;

wherein provide the indication of what the result of the enabled interactivity would be comprises instructions to;

identify, using the analytical model, a relationship between input and output parameters associated with the enabled interactivity of the data-driven visual item;

determine one or more values for the input parameters of the enabled interactivity based on the first user interaction;

complete, by the analytical model, a contingency solve operation for the output parameters of the enabled interactivity to determine how the enabled interactivity would

alter the display of another one of the data-driven visual items on the display; and

provide a preview of the altered display.

5. The physical computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the type of interactivity is an edit interactivity that changes data in a manner that one or more parameter values of one or more of the parameterized visual components changes.

6. The physical computer program product in accordance with claim 5, wherein the one or more parameter values change by changing values of model parameters used to generate the one or more parameter values.

7. A physical computer program product comprising one or more physical computer readable hardware storage devices having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processor of a computing system, causes the computing system to instantiate in memory:

an analytical model;

a portion of a view components repository, each view component of the portion corresponding to a data-driven displayable visual item, the view component comprising input parameters, output parameters, and logic to construct the corresponding data-driven visual item;

at least one visually-cued interactive view component of the view components repository, the visually-cued interactive view component comprising a view component for a data-driven visual item having at least one interactivity parameter that defines whether or not a user may interact with the rendering of the corresponding visual item and how, wherein the logic to construct the corresponding visual item uses the at least one interactivity parameter to construct the visual item such that when the visual item is rendered, the rendered visual item has the defined interactivity and is rendered with a visual cue that indicates to the user that the rendered visual item is interactive, indicates the type of interactivity, and, prior to the enabled interactivity being performed, provides an indication of what a result of the interactivity would be if the defined interactivity were to be performed;

a view composition module configured to execute the execution logic of the view components to construct a plurality of visual items such that the plurality of visual items may be rendered; and

a rendering engine for rendering the plurality of visual items, wherein the defined interactivity of the at least one visually-cued interactive component is structured to operate the defined interactivity in response to detecting an interaction between a user and the corresponding visual item and render the result of the interactivity;

wherein the logic that provides an indication of what a result of the interactivity would be if the defined interactivity were to be performed comprises;

identifying, by the analytical model, a relationship between the interactivity parameter and an associated output parameter;

completing, by the analytical model, a contingency solve operation to determine what consequences of the enabled interactivity would be;

determining how the enabled interactivity would alter the display of another visual item; and

displaying a preview of the altered display.