Method and system for efficient organization of selectable elements on a graphical user interface

Claim 2

A computer implemented method of organizing selectable elements on a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising the steps of: (1) providing a list of at least two selectable elements for display on said GUI, each selectable element in said list associated with a respective target element; (2) generating a first access frequency index for each selectable element in said list corresponding to a number of times said selectable element has been selected by a plurality of users, step (2) comprising steps of: receiving N access frequency counts associated with said selectable element and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable element was selected during each time interval; weighting access frequency counts received in a more recent time interval with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in an older time interval; and summing said weighted access frequency counts from each of said N previous time intervals; and (3) organizing said selectable elements with a higher first access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable elements with a lower first access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a current user can select said selectable elements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 3

The method in claim 1 further comprising the step of adding a first access frequency count from said N access frequency count for said selectable element to said sum.

Claim 4

The method in claim 1, wherein at least one target element is associated with a sublist of at least two selectable subelements, said method further including before step (3) and after step (2), the step of generating a second access frequency index for each selectable subelement in said sublist corresponding to a number of times each selectable subelement has been selected.

Claim 5

The method in claim 3 wherein the step of generating a second access frequency index for a selectable subelement further comprises the steps of: receiving N access frequency counts associated with a selectable subelement and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable subelement was selected during each time interval; weighting access frequency counts in more recent time intervals with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in older time intervals; and summing said weighted access frequency counts at each of said N previous time intervals.

Claim 6

The method in claim 4 further comprising the step of adding a first access frequency count from said N access frequency counts for said selectable subelement to said sum.

Claim 7

The method in claim 3 further comprising the step of organizing said selectable subelements with a higher second access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable subelements with a lower second access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a user can select said selectable subelements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 8

The method in claim 6 wherein said selectable elements located in said first area on said GUI are more easily selected with a pointing device than said selectable elements located in said second area on said GUI.

Claim 9

The method in claim 3, further comprising the step of: modifying said first access frequency index to have a magnitude corresponding to a sum of said first access frequency index and said second access frequency index.

Claim 10

The method in claim 3 wherein at least two of said selectable subelements are hypertext links.

Claim 11

The method in claim 3 wherein at least two of said selectable subelements are GUI buttons.

Claim 12

The method in claim 1 wherein at least two of said selectable element are hypertext links.

Claim 13

The method in claim 1 wherein at least two of said selectable elements are GUI buttons.

Claim 14

The method in claim 1 performed over a computer based network having a server computer system and a client computer system, wherein said server computer system performs said steps associated with organizing said selectable elements on a GUI.

Claim 15

The method in claim 1 performed over a computer based network having a server computer system and a client computer system, wherein said client computer system performs said steps associated with organizing said selectable elements on a GUI.

Claim 16

The method in claim 1 wherein said list of selectable elements only includes selectable elements in a predetermined category.

Claim 17

The method in claim 15 wherein said predetermined category is selected from a list of user types including novice users, intermediate users and advanced users.

Claim 18

The method in claim 15 wherein said predetermined category is selected from a list of operating systems including Unix, DOS, Windows, and Macintosh.

Claim 19

A computing apparatus configured to organize selectable elements on a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising: (1) a mechanism configured to provide a list of at least two selectable elements for display on said GUI, each selectable element in said list associated with a respective target element; (2) a mechanism configured to generate a first access frequency index for each selectable element in said list corresponding to a number of times said selectable element has been selected by a plurality of users; the mechanism configured to generate a first access frequency index, the first access frequency index mechanism further comprising: a mechanism configured to receive N access frequency counts associated with said selectable element and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable element was selected during each time interval; a mechanism configured to weight access frequency counts received in a more recent time interval with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in an older time interval; and a mechanism configured to sum weighted access frequency counts from each of said N previous time intervals; and (3) a mechanism configured to organize said selectable elements with a higher first access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable elements with a lower first access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a current user can select said selectable elements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 20

A computing apparatus configured to organize selectable elements on a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising: (1) a mechanism configured to provide a list of at least two selectable elements for display on said GUI, each selectable element in said list associated with a respective target element; (2) a mechanism configured to generate a first access frequency index for each selectable element in said list corresponding to a number of times said selectable element has been selected by a plurality of users; the mechanism configured to generate a first access frequency index, the first access frequency index mechanism further comprising: a mechanism configured to receive N access frequency counts associated with said selectable element and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable element was selected during each time interval; a mechanism configured to weight access frequency counts received in a more recent time interval with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in an older time interval; and a mechanism configured to sum weighted access frequency counts from each of said N previous time intervals; and (3) a mechanism configured to organize said selectable elements with a higher first access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable elements with a lower first access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a current user can select said selectable elements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 21

The apparatus in claim 18 further comprising a mechanism configured to add a first access frequency count from said N access frequency counts for said selectable element to said sum.

Claim 22

The apparatus in claim 19, wherein at least one target element is associated with a sublist of at least two selectable subelements and a mechanism is configured to generate a second access frequency index for each selectable subelement in said sublist corresponding to a number of times each selectable subelement has been selected.

Claim 23

The apparatus in claim 20 wherein the mechanism configured to generate a second access frequency index for a selectable subelement further comprises: a mechanism configured to receive N access frequency counts associated with a selectable subelement and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable subelement was selected during each time interval; a mechanism configured to weight access frequency counts in more recent time intervals with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in older time intervals; and a mechanism configured to sum said weighted access frequency counts at each of said N previous time intervals.

Claim 24

The apparatus in claim 21 further comprising a mechanism configured to add a first access frequency count from said N access frequency counts for said selectable subelement to said sum.

Claim 25

The apparatus in claim 20 further comprising a mechanism configured to organize said selectable subelements with a higher second access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable subelements with a lower second access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a user can select said selectable subelements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 26

The apparatus in claim 23 wherein said selectable elements located in said first area on said GUI are more easily selected with a pointing device than said selectable elements located in said second area on said GUI.

Claim 27

The apparatus in claim 21, further comprising: a mechanism configured to modify said first access frequency index to have a magnitude corresponding to a sum of said first access frequency index and said second access frequency index.

Claim 28

The apparatus in claim 20 wherein at least two of said selectable subelements are hypertext links.

Claim 29

The apparatus in claim 20 wherein at least two of said selectable subelements are GUI buttons.

Claim 30

The apparatus in claim 18 wherein at least two of said selectable elements are hypertext links.

Claim 31

The apparatus in claim 18 wherein at least two of said selectable elements are GUI buttons.

Claim 32

The apparatus in claim 18 further comprising a computer based network having a server computer system and a client computer system, wherein said server computer system is configured to organize said selectable elements on a GUI.

Claim 33

The apparatus in claim 18 further comprising a computer based network having a server computer system and a client computer system, wherein said client computer system is configured to organize said selectable elements on a GUI.

Claim 34

A computer program product comprising: a computer usable medium having computer readable code tangibly embodied therein for organizing selectable elements on a graphical user interface (GUI), the computer program product comprising: (1) code configured to provide a list of at least two selectable elements for display on said GUI, each selectable element in said list associated with a respective target element; (2) code configured to generate a first access frequency index for each selectable element in said list corresponding to a number of times said selectable element has been selected by a plurality of users by: code configured to receive N access frequency counts associated with said selectable element and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable element was selected during each time interval; code configured to weight access frequency counts received in a more recent time interval with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in an older time interval; and code configured to sum weighted access frequency counts from each of said N previous time intervals; and (3) code configured to organize said selectable elements with a higher first access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable elements with a lower first access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a current user can select said selectable elements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 35

A computer program product comprising: a computer usable medium having computer readable code tangibly embodied therein for organizing selectable elements on a graphical user interface (GUI), the computer program product comprising: (1) code configured to provide a list of at least two selectable elements for display on said GUI, each selectable element in said list associated with a respective target element; (2) code configured to generate a first access frequency index for each selectable element in said list corresponding to a number of times said selectable element has been selected by a plurality of users by: code configured to receive N access frequency counts associated with said selectable element and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable element was selected during each time interval; code configured to weight access frequency counts received in a more recent time interval with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in an older time interval; and code configured to sum weighted access frequency counts from each of said N previous time intervals; and (3) code configured to organize said selectable elements with a higher first access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable elements with a lower first access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a current user can select said selectable elements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 36

The code in claim 32 further comprising code configured to add a first access frequency count from said N access frequency count for said selectable element to said sum.

Claim 37

The code in claim 32, wherein at least one target element is associated with a sublist of at least two selectable subelements and said code is configured to generate a second access frequency index for each selectable subelement in said sublist corresponding to a number of times each selectable subelement has been selected.

Claim 38

The code in claim 34 wherein the code configured to generate a second access frequency index for a selectable subelement further comprises: code configured to receive N access frequency counts associated with a selectable subelement and generated over a corresponding N previous time intervals, each of said access frequency counts corresponding to a total number of times said selectable subelement was selected during each time interval; code configured to weight access frequency counts in more recent time intervals with greater magnitude than access frequency counts received in older time intervals; and code configured to sum said weighted access frequency counts at each of said N previous time intervals.

Claim 39

The code in claim 35 further comprising code configured to add a first access frequency count from said N access frequency counts for said selectable subelement to said sum.

Claim 40

The code in claim 34 further comprising code configured to organize said selectable subelements with a higher second access frequency index in a first area on said GUI and said selectable subelements with a lower second access frequency index in a second area on said GUI, whereby a user can select said selectable subelements organized on said GUI in a more efficient manner.

Claim 41

The code in claim 37 wherein said selectable elements located in said first area on said GUI are more easily selected with a pointing device than said selectable elements located in said second area on said GUI.

Claim 42

The code in claim 34, further comprising: code configured to modify said first access frequency index to have a magnitude corresponding to a sum of said first access frequency index and said second access frequency index.

Claim 43

The code in claim 34 wherein at least two of said selectable subelements are hypertext links.

Claim 44

The code in claim 34 wherein at least two of said selectable subelements are GUI buttons.

Claim 45

The code in claim 32 wherein at least two of said selectable elements are hypertext links.

Claim 46

The code in claim 32 wherein at least two of said selectable elements are GUI buttons.

Claim 47

The code in claim 32 further comprising a computer based network having a server computer system and a client computer system, wherein said server computer system is configured to organize said selectable elements on a GUI.

Claim 48

The code in claim 32 further comprising a computer based network having a server computer system and a client computer system, wherein said client computer system is configured to organize said selectable elements on a GUI.

Claim 49

The method in claim 1 wherein said selectable elements located in said first area on said GUI are more easily selected with a pointing device than said selectable elements located in said second area on said GUI.

Claim 50

The apparatus in claim 18 wherein said selectable elements located in said first area on said GUI are more easily selected with a pointing device than said selectable elements located in said second area on said GUI.

Claim 51

The code in claim 32 wherein said selectable elements located in said first area on said GUI are more easily selected with a pointing device than said selectable elements located in said second area on said GUI.