Tree Structure Navigation Using Summary Snippets
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Solution Overview
Problem
In tree structure navigation, users face challenges in maintaining context when dealing with deep and wide hierarchies due to limited screen space, leading to loss of relationship between focus and non-displayed nodes.
Innovation Solution
A tree structure summary system that uses summary information to navigate hierarchically arranged levels, displaying detailed information for the focus level and ancestor levels, with summary information indicating the hierarchical relationship, allowing users to filter and skip levels, thus maintaining context and efficient navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If detailed information for all levels is displayed, then completeness of information is improved, but screen space consumption increases and context is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The display area is segmented into two distinct regions: a summary information region that displays condensed hierarchical context for all levels, and a detailed information region that displays comprehensive data for the focus level. This segmentation allows both context preservation and detailed examination without screen space conflict.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-dimensional display (either summary or detailed) to a two-dimensional layout where summary information occupies a horizontal band at the top and detailed information fills the vertical space below. This dimensional arrangement allows simultaneous display of both types of information.
2Area of stationary object
If only focus level is displayed, then screen space efficiency is improved, but user loses track of hierarchical context
Solution Approach 1:
Summary information acts as an intermediary element between the focus level and the root level, providing a condensed representation of the hierarchical path. This intermediary displays ancestor levels and their relationships without requiring full detailed display, thus preserving context while saving screen space.
3Ease of operation
If summary information is displayed, then context navigation is improved, but detailed information visibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The display system dynamically adjusts between summary and detailed views based on user interaction. When users navigate through the hierarchy, the summary information updates to reflect the current path, while detailed information is loaded on-demand for the focus level. This dynamic behavior ensures both navigation efficiency and information availability.
Data Source
AI summary
Summary information is used to navigate a tree structure of hierarchically arranged levels of nodes. A user interface displays detailed information concerning the nodes of one or more levels, including the current focus. The interface also displays summary information concerning each level of the navigation path from the root level to the focus level. The user can navigate through the tree structure using the summary information. As the user navigates down into the tree structure, new summary information is displayed summarizing the nodes of each successively deeper level. As the user navigates from the current focus towards the root, the user interface is updated to remove displayed summary and detailed information for levels that are no longer part of the navigation path. The summary information can also be used to filter the detailed information displayed concerning nodes of a specific level, responsive to user specified filtering criteria.