Contact Manager Prioritizing Records by Last Activity Date
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact management systems fail to provide a prioritized display of contact records based on both Last Contacted and Last Activity dates, leading to an ineffective 'big picture' view of contacts that need attention, especially those with no recent communication.
Innovation Solution
A contact management system that stores contact records with Last Contacted and Last Activity fields, prioritizes them based on the Last Activity date, and displays them in a graphical user interface, allowing users to update the Last Activity field upon interaction, thereby re-sorting and re-displaying the records in prioritized order.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If contact records are displayed alphabetically by name or chronologically by last contacted, then the display is simple and easy to implement, but the system cannot provide a prioritized view that effectively identifies contacts needing attention
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sorting criteria into two distinct fields: Last Contacted date and Last Activity date. By separating these functions, the system can first identify contacts based on Last Contacted date, then apply prioritization based on Last Activity date, achieving both simplicity and effective prioritization simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a new dimension to the display by introducing Last Activity date as a secondary sorting criterion. This transforms the single-dimensional chronological display into a two-dimensional prioritized display, where contacts are first grouped by Last Contacted date and then sorted within those groups by Last Activity date, providing a more comprehensive view.
2Measurement precision
If the system tracks both Last Contacted and Last Activity dates, then prioritization accuracy is improved, but the data structure and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the contact record data structure into separate fields for Last Contacted date and Last Activity date. This segmentation allows the system to track both dates independently without creating complex interdependent data structures, maintaining simplicity while improving prioritization accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary sorting by Last Contacted date, then applies secondary sorting by Last Activity date only to the identified subset of contacts. This two-stage preliminary action approach improves prioritization accuracy without requiring complex real-time processing of all contacts simultaneously.
3Reliability
If contacts are re-sorted every time a user interacts with a contact, then the prioritized view remains up-to-date, but the processing time and system responsiveness may be affected
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the re-sorting operation as a preliminary action immediately when a user interacts with a contact, updating the Last Activity date and re-ordering the display before the user continues their workflow. This ensures data currency without requiring complex asynchronous processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact list display is designed to be dynamic, automatically re-sorting when the underlying data (Last Activity date) changes. This dynamic behavior ensures the prioritized view remains current without requiring manual intervention or complex batch processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A contact management system such as in a telephone or CRM system displays contact information from contact records based on a combination of contact record fields. In certain exemplary embodiments, contact records identified according to a Last Contacted field are prioritized based on a Last Activity field and are displayed in prioritized order via a graphical user interface, where the Last Contacted field of a record indicates the last time communication was made with that contact (e.g., via email or phone) and the Last Activity field of a record indicates the last time the contact record was updated in any of a variety of ways (e.g., last date of contact, or last time information in the record was edited by a user).