Method and system for providing an adaptive input user interface for data entry applications

• US 9,405,426 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2010
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Tanaka, Jamison M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): JUNG, SEUNG WOON
• Application Number:
  US12/979,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20110214067A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,044 Days
• Field of Search: 715/221, 715/223, 715/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Embodiments are described for a system and method for adapting an online user input form that provides user input to a web-based application. A method comprises defining one or more attributes related to one or more fields of the online user input form, obtaining historical data comprising past user input to related user input forms, calculating historical most common values for each attribute of the one or more attributes; and modifying the one or more fields of the online user input form in accordance with the calculated historical average values. The attributes may include at least one of the size, location, and datatype of each field of the form. The method may be implemented through an application programming interface for implementation through server-side and client-side processes that are written in a web-browser compatible markup language.

Claims

1. A method of providing an optimized user input form including a plurality of input fields through web-based for display to a user, the method comprising:

determining whether an input field on a user input form is an alphanumeric character input field or a binary checkbox to define an input field type;

determining whether the input field is filled with exclusively numeric, alphabetic, or binary symbol data based on historical data to define a preferred datatype associated with the input field, the historical data comprising past user input to the user input form;

determining whether the input field is virtually always filled in by a user based on the historical data to define a relative importance of the input field;

determining a size of the input field based on an average number of characters of the input field as dictated by a historic average size from the historical data to define a preferred input field size;

adaptively modifying the size of the input field as displayed on a web page based on the preferred input field size;

adaptively modifying a location of the input field on the user input form based on the relative importance of the input field; and

constraining a datatype of the input field based on the preferred datatype.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising creating an adaptively modified form for display to a present user based on the adaptively modified size of the input field, the adaptively modified location of the input field, and the constrained datatype of the input field.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising obtaining historical data including past user input data provided to a form identical or similar to the optimized user input form.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising storing the historical data in a database.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising adding input from present user input to the adaptively modified form to the historical data in the database.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the size of the input field is modified by adding allocated space to the input field if the historic average size indicates that a current size of the input field is too short, and deleting at least some allocated space from the input field if the historic average size indicates that the current size of the input field is too long.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the location of the input field is modified by moving the input field higher or lower relative to other input fields in a displayed form based on the relative importance value.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the location of the input field is coded as an integer value within a programming definition of the input field.

9. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed, cause the one or more processors to;

determine whether an input field on a user input form is an alphanumeric character input field or a binary checkbox to define an input field type;

determine whether the input field is filled with exclusively numeric, alphabetic, or binary symbol data based on historical data to define a preferred datatype associated with the input field, the historical data comprising past user input to the user input form;

determine whether the input field is virtually always filled in by a user based on the historical data to define a relative importance of the input field;

determine a size of the input field based on an average number of characters of the input field as dictated by a historic average size from the historical data to define a preferred input field size;

modify, adaptively, the size of the input field as displayed on a web page based on the preferred input field size;

modify, adaptively, a location of the input field on the user input form based on the relative importance of the input field; and

constrain a datatype of the input field based on the preferred datatype.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the one or more processors to create an adaptively modified form for display to a present user based on the adaptively modified size of the input field, the adaptively modified location of the input field, and the constrained datatype of the input field.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the one or more processors to obtain historical data including past user input data provided to a form identical or similar to the optimized user input form.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the one or more processors to store the historical data in a database.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising adding input from present user input to the adaptively modified form to the historical data in the database.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the size of the input field is modified by adding allocated space to the input field if the historic average size indicates that a current size of the input field is too short, and deleting at least some allocated space from the input field if the historic average size indicates that the current size of the input field is too long.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the location of the input field is modified by moving the input field higher or lower relative to other input fields in a displayed form based on the relative importance value.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the location of the input field is coded as an integer value within a programming definition of the input field.

17. A computer program product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions to:

determine whether an input field on a user input form is an alphanumeric character input field or a binary checkbox to define an input field type;

determine whether the input field is filled with exclusively numeric, alphabetic, or binary symbol data based on historical data to define a preferred datatype associated with the input field, the historical data comprising past user input to the user input form;

determine whether the input field is virtually always filled in by a user based on the historical data to define a relative importance of the input field;

determine a size of the input field based on an average number of characters of the input field as dictated by a historic average size from the historical data to define a preferred input field size;

modify, adaptively, the size of the input field as displayed on a web page based on the preferred input field size;

modify, adaptively, a location of the input field on the user input form based on the relative importance of the input field; and

constrain a datatype of the input field based on the preferred datatype.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the one or more processors to create an adaptively modified form for display to a present user based on the adaptively modified size of the input field, the adaptively modified location of the input field, and the constrained datatype of the input field.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the one or more processors to obtain historical data including past user input data provided to a form identical or similar to the optimized user input form.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed further cause the one or more processors to store the historical data in a database.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising adding input from present user input to the adaptively modified form to the historical data in the database.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein the size of the input field is modified by adding allocated space to the input field if the historic average size indicates that a current size of the input field is too short, and deleting at least some allocated space from the input field if the historic average size indicates that the current size of the input field is too long.

23. The method of claim 17 wherein the location of the input field is modified by moving the input field higher or lower relative to other input fields in a displayed form based on the relative importance value.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the location of the input field is coded as an integer value within a programming definition of the input field.