Dynamic Contact Information Display for Reducing Data Repetition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact information pages often suffer from repetition, making it burdensome for users to find specific information due to overlapping data, particularly when multiple individuals share the same name or role, leading to inefficiencies in data retrieval and presentation.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic contact application that receives search requests, retrieves contact information from repositories, determines differentiating factors for common contact data fields, and selectively displays values based on these factors to minimize repetition and enhance user efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If contact information is displayed in a standard tabular format with all fields for each contact, then complete contact information is provided, but repetition of common data (such as multiple contacts with the same name or role) increases user burden and makes it difficult to find specific contact information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the differentiating fields (fields where values differ across contacts) while suppressing repetitive common fields. This removes redundant information from the display, allowing users to quickly identify unique contacts without wading through repeated data, thus improving retrieval efficiency while reducing user burden
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of displaying all fields for each contact as in traditional contact lists, the patent inverts the approach by displaying only the fields that differentiate contacts. This inversion transforms the problem from showing complete information to showing only the necessary differentiating information, resolving the contradiction between information completeness and ease of finding specific contacts
2Productivity
If all contact data fields are displayed for every contact, then no information is lost, but the quantity of displayed information increases leading to redundancy and reduced search efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the differentiating fields from the complete contact data set and displays them, while suppressing fields where all contacts share the same value. This extraction approach reduces the quantity of displayed information to only what is necessary for differentiation, thereby improving search efficiency without losing essential contact identification information
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically changes the display parameters (which fields are shown) based on the actual data in the contact list. When fields have uniform values across contacts, they are suppressed; when they have varying values, they are displayed. This parameter change adapts the information quantity to the specific data set, optimizing search efficiency while minimizing redundant display
Data Source
AI summary
A method for presenting contact information that includes receiving a search request for the contact information and retrieving a result set comprising a plurality of contacts corresponding to the search request, wherein each contact comprises a plurality of common contact data fields. The method also includes, for each common contact data field in the result set, determining a differentiating factor for the common contact data field, and selectively displaying at least one value of the common contact data field based on the differentiating factor.