Contextual Popup Menus for Personalized Website Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional website navigation methods, whether through narrative flow or extensive menus, are inefficient and cognitively burdensome, often omitting relevant information and resources, especially for complex websites with extensive menus.
Innovation Solution
A personalized contextual popup menu system that uses action determinant factors to dynamically select and prioritize actions based on user behavior, preferences, and context, providing a streamlined interface with a vertical stack or expandable menu.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If extensive menus are provided on every page to include all information and resources, then completeness of information is improved, but menu complexity and cognitive burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the extensive menu into multiple contextual popup menus, each displaying a limited subset of actions relevant to the current page and user context. Instead of presenting all actions at once, the system divides them into manageable groups that appear contextually, reducing cognitive burden while maintaining access to complete information through sequential or expandable popups.
Solution Approach 2:
The menu transitions from a static extensive list to a dynamic contextual popup system that adapts its content based on user context, page type, and interaction history. The popup menu dynamically adjusts which actions are displayed, prioritizing relevant actions while keeping less relevant ones accessible but not immediately visible, thus reducing perceived complexity.
2Ease of operation
If narrative flow navigation is used to guide users through webpages, then user guidance is improved, but navigation time and efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by proactively presenting relevant actions in the popup menu before users need to navigate through the narrative flow. By anticipating user needs and displaying appropriate actions upfront, the system eliminates the need for users to read through narrative content sequentially to discover available actions, thus reducing navigation time while maintaining guidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The contextual popup menu acts as an intermediary between the narrative flow and user actions. It intercepts the navigation process by providing a direct access point to relevant actions without requiring users to follow the full narrative path, thus bridging the gap between guided navigation and efficient access.
3Stability of the object's composition
If same menu is provided on every page for consistency, then user experience consistency is improved, but relevance of displayed actions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making each popup menu's content specific to the local context of the current page and user state, while maintaining the overall consistent popup interface structure. Each page displays actions that are locally relevant to that page's function and the user's current needs, rather than displaying the same global menu everywhere, thus achieving both consistency in interface pattern and adaptability in content.
Solution Approach 2:
The popup menu system serves multiple functions: it provides consistent interface structure across all pages, adapts content to local context, prioritizes actions based on relevance, and maintains access to the complete action set. This multi-functionality allows the same menu mechanism to achieve both consistency and adaptability simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
An action selection facility for a website made up of pages is described. The facility receives requests, each identifying a requested page among the website's pages, and a requesting user for whom the request was generated. For each received request, the facility: (a) identifies actions presently available to the requesting user that can be performed using the website; (b) accesses a set of action determinant factors that relate to the request, and uses them to generate a score for each identified action; and (c) selects a proper subset of the identified actions based at least in part on the scores generated for them.