Drill-Down Timeline Control for Event Filtering
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing timeline systems overwhelm users with unfiltered historical events, making it difficult to find specific events, especially for long-term customers or businesses with frequent interactions.
Innovation Solution
A customizable drill-down timeline control that allows users to filter events by category with a single click, displaying only relevant events and enabling further reduction through sub-categories, using a user interface that displays event cards and allows selection for drill-down access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If the timeline displays all events in chronological order, then the complete history of customer interactions is preserved, but the timeline becomes increasingly difficult and confusing to navigate as it grows longer
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the chronological timeline into categorized groups (e.g., orders, communications, profile changes). Each category is visually separated and can be independently accessed, allowing users to divide the overwhelming full timeline into manageable segments based on event type rather than displaying all events in a single continuous list.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts specific event categories from the complete timeline and presents them as separate, filterable groups. Users can select particular categories (such as only 'orders' or only 'communications') to view, effectively taking out only the relevant portion of the full event history needed for the current task.
2Loss of information
If the timeline displays all events for long-time customers or business entities with frequent interactions, then comprehensive customer history is available, but the data volume becomes overwhelming and unmanageable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large volume of customer interaction events into distinct categorical groups (orders, communications, profile changes, etc.). This segmentation reduces the perceived volume by organizing events into structured sections, making the comprehensive history manageable through systematic categorization rather than presenting all events as a single overwhelming list.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and filters specific subsets of events from the complete customer history based on category selections. Users can extract only the relevant event types needed for their current task, effectively reducing the displayed volume from all customer interactions to only the specific category of interest.
3Loss of information
If users must filter through the entire timeline to find a particular event, then all events are initially visible, but the time required to locate specific events increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary categorization of events into distinct groups before the user needs to search. The timeline is pre-organized by event type (orders, communications, profile changes) with clear visual indicators, so when users arrive at the timeline, the sorting and categorization work is already done, eliminating the need for users to manually filter through unorganized events.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the timeline into categorized sections that can be quickly scanned. Instead of presenting all events in a single chronological stream requiring linear searching, events are segmented into thematic groups with visual markers, allowing users to jump directly to relevant categories and find specific events much faster.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods providing drill-down access to timeline events to a user by a user interface are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a timeline is presented to a user by the user interface. The timeline may comprise a plurality of event cards comprising event data associated with a customer. The user may select an input associated with the event card. Upon selection of the input, a second plurality of event cards indicative of an event category and associate with the customer may be displayed.