Portal Navigation Portlet for Context Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users navigating content in portals face difficulties due to the lack of an intuitive navigation system, making it challenging to maintain context and relationships between content items, as portlets cannot apply navigation tools to their own content.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and portal application system that uses a navigation portlet and a content viewer portlet to communicate and update displayed category and content information, allowing users to navigate content items in a user-friendly manner by mapping taxonomy structures into a graphical user interface, similar to navigating folders and files.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If portlets display content items without a navigation box, then the portal provides basic content viewing capability, but users cannot maintain context and relationships between content items
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation portlet is designed to work with multiple content viewer portlets, providing a universal navigation interface that can be applied across different content types. The navigation portlet serves multiple functions: displaying category information, providing navigation links, and maintaining context relationships, thereby improving ease of operation without requiring separate navigation mechanisms for each content type.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation portlet acts as an intermediary between the user and the content items. It provides a standardized interface that mediates the interaction, allowing users to navigate content items through category-based links while maintaining context. This intermediary structure simplifies the user experience without requiring direct manipulation of complex content relationships.
2Ease of operation
If users click multiple links to navigate content items, then users can access different content, but users lose their position and context in the content hierarchy
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation portlet provides continuous feedback to users about their position in the content hierarchy through displayed category information and navigation links. When users click links, the system updates the navigation portlet to reflect the new context, providing immediate feedback that helps users maintain orientation. This feedback mechanism reduces navigation time by eliminating the need for users to remember their position through manual tracking.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation portlet performs preliminary action by pre-displaying category information and navigation links before users need to access specific content items. This preliminary structure is established in advance, allowing users to quickly navigate to desired content without having to re-trace their path or remember the hierarchy, thereby reducing navigation time and maintaining context.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a navigation menu is provided for the portal, then the portal itself can be navigated, but the menu cannot be applied by portlets to navigate their own content
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation portlet is designed as a universal component that can be applied by various content viewer portlets to navigate their own content. It provides a standardized interface that adapts to different content types while maintaining consistent navigation functionality. This universality allows any portlet to leverage the same navigation mechanism, improving both adaptability and ease of operation simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation functionality is segmented into a separate navigation portlet that can be independently applied to different content viewer portlets. This segmentation allows the navigation mechanism to be developed once and then reused across multiple content types, improving adaptability without requiring custom navigation solutions for each portlet. The segmented design maintains ease of operation by providing a consistent, pre-built navigation interface.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer implemented method for navigating content in a portal. Category information is obtained for a portal. The category information is displayed in the navigation portlet to form displayed category information. Content information is obtained for the portal. The content information is displayed in the content viewer portlet to form displayed content information, wherein the navigation portlet and the content viewer portlet communicate to each other to update displayed category information and displayed content information after a user action.