Patent ID: 6460025
Filing Date: 2002-10-01
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A computer program product on a computer-readable medium in a computing environment for improving user exploration through multiple hierarchies of information, comprising:computer-readable program code means for computing a structural relevance for each of a root node and one or more intermediate nodes in each of one or more category hierarchies, each of said category hierarchies comprising said root node, said one or more intermediate nodes, and one or more leaf nodes, wherein each of said root nodes and said intermediate nodes corresponds to a category in said hierarchy and wherein each of said leaf nodes corresponds to an entity categorized by said hierarchy; computer-readable program code means for enabling a user of said computer program product to select a particular one of said root nodes or said intermediate nodes; computer-readable program code means, responsive to operation of said computer-readable program code means for enabling, for computing a state relevance reflecting said selection; computer-readable program code means, responsive to operation of said computer-readable program code means for computing said state relevance, for computing a node feasibility reflecting said state relevance; and computer-readable program code means for displaying a graphical representation of said computed node feasibility to guide said user in exploring said one or more category hierarchies.