Context-Based Contact Grouping for Mobile Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional contact management approaches on telecommunications devices become inefficient as the number of contacts grows, leading to difficulties in identifying specific contact information and accessing preferred communication methods, especially when users have a large number of contacts.
Innovation Solution
The system manages a subset of user contacts by determining and generating contact groups based on the user's context, such as location or communication events, using a contact management service that integrates external data sources to create and display relevant contact groups with divider objects for better organization and accessibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If all contact information is presented in a list-based format, then complete contact information is available, but user difficulty increases in identifying specific contact information as the number of contacts grows
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complete contact list into multiple contact groups (e.g., Favorites, Recent, Business, Personal) that can be selectively displayed. This segmentation allows users to access specific subsets of contacts based on their current needs, reducing the cognitive load of searching through all contacts while ensuring that relevant contact information remains accessible.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact groups are dynamically generated and can be reorganized based on user context, communication patterns, and preferences. The system automatically updates contact group compositions and display priorities, allowing the most relevant contacts to be prominently displayed while less relevant contacts are moved to secondary positions or groups.
2Loss of information
If the entire set of contacts is displayed in alphabetical order, then all contacts are accessible, but user efficiency decreases in accessing preferred communication methods
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary organization of contacts into contextually relevant groups before the user needs to access them. Contact groups are pre-generated based on communication history, frequency, and user preferences, so that when users need to contact someone, the relevant contacts are already organized and easily accessible without requiring alphabetical searching.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the organizational parameter from static alphabetical ordering to dynamic contextual grouping. Contacts are reorganized based on multiple parameters including communication frequency, recency, category, and user preferences, allowing the most efficient access path to be maintained while preserving complete contact information availability.
3Loss of information
If contact management presents all contact information, then comprehensive data is available, but interface clutter increases and usability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and separates contact information into distinct contact groups based on relevance and context. Instead of presenting all contacts uniformly, the system extracts frequently contacted or contextually relevant contacts into prominent groups (e.g., Favorites, Recent) while moving less relevant contacts to secondary groups or requiring additional navigation steps to access.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a dimensional layer of organization by creating contact groups as a new dimension of access. Rather than a single flat list, contacts are organized in multiple hierarchical and parallel dimensions (groups within groups, primary and secondary levels), allowing comprehensive contact data to be presented in a structured, less cluttered interface.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums for managing a subset of user contacts on a telecommunications device are provided. In one embodiment, a software application executed by a processor of a telecommunications device determines at least two contact groups from a subset of contacts accessible by a telecommunications device. The software application executed by the processor of the telecommunications device also generates a contact display including at least one contact group associated with the subset of contacts based on a current context of a user of the telecommunications device. The current context can include, for example, one or more of a location, time, date, and the like.