Social Network Timeline Interface for Chronological User Data Aggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Social networking systems face challenges in presenting historical user information effectively, as profile pages become cluttered with large volumes of data, making it difficult for users to find and view older information related to specific time periods, and current systems lack the ability to aggregate and display information in a chronological and relevant manner.
Innovation Solution
A display interface that organizes user information into chronological timeline units based on relevance and relatedness, using a ranking method to highlight the most relevant information, allowing users to view data and activities from specific time periods in a compact and informative structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the profile page displays all user information sections, then the completeness of information is improved, but the ease of locating specific historical information deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the user's historical information into distinct time-based sections (e.g., college years, work years, recent years) within the profile page. Each section is delimited by temporal markers and contains information from a specific time period, allowing users to quickly navigate to historical information without searching through all sections. This temporal segmentation resolves the contradiction by organizing complete information into manageable time-based segments that are easy to locate.
2Device complexity
If the profile page uses segmented display by information type, then the organization of information is improved, but the ability to view related information from different types simultaneously deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension to the information display by organizing information not just by type (photos, videos, status updates) but also by time period. This creates a two-dimensional organization where users can select a time period and view all related information of different types from that period together. The temporal dimension allows related information from different categories to be concurrently displayed, resolving the contradiction between organized display and concurrent viewing capability.
3Quantity of substance
If the system displays all user information, then the information volume is improved, but the display space constraint causes information clutter that reduces ease of operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large volume of user information into time-based sections, making it more consumable. Each time period section contains a manageable subset of information, and users can navigate between periods using temporal markers. This segmentation reduces the cognitive load and visual clutter that would result from displaying all information at once, while still preserving the complete information volume across all sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary organization of information by time period before display, pre-grouping photos, videos, and status updates into chronological sections. This preliminary action eliminates the need for users to manually search or sort through all information, reducing the effort required to consume historical information while maintaining comprehensive coverage of the entire information volume.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user.