Abstract:
The present invention includes systems of, methods for, and computer implemented products that present a nestable user interface for viewing and interacting with information displayed on a computer (or computing device) display. The nestable user interface allows a user to flexibly configure and associate information sources, both local and accessed over a network, and to seek various documents to view intuitively and by immediate visual recognition. The nestable user interface is also extensible.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present PCT application claims priority from the co-pending U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/901,489, filed on Feb. 13, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not applicable. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to accessing, organizing, and/or interacting with information, and more specifically to systems, methods, and computer implemented products for providing nestable user interfaces that enable extensible capabilities for accessing, organizing, and/or interacting with visual representation of data on a computer display. 
     2. Related Art 
     As information technology (IT) has become an ubiquitous facet of modern life, new challenges arise. In prior eras, merely gaining access to information has been a principal factor that has influenced many individuals&#39; and organizations&#39; capabilities. At various times, the mere possession of information has been a major avenue to the acquisition of power. Currently, and in particular with the ever increasing capacity and reach of large volume data transfer capabilities, it is not so much the naked access to information that is as critical as is the ability to organize and manage the glut of raw information that is available. Locating the appropriate information from amongst the vast breadth available has become so difficult, and the addressing of this issue has concomitantly become so valuable that great wealth has been earned purely from presenting the best present means to effect a search on the Internet. Additionally, as IT has assumed a paramount role in many IT user activities, these users&#39; personal data storage has also become so convoluted that tools are needed to more effectively organize this personal data. The prevalent present approaches are primarily based on paradigms that model storage systems from previous eras, such as file cabinets. Many current user interface designs organize items in a file type architecture, where items reside in locations based on type of file or software used to manipulate it. Examples of these include conventional email inboxes, contacts folders, “My Documents” folders, “My Video” folders, shared network resources, and browser favorites. These paradigms are of some benefit, but also have substantial limitations due to their inability to provide substantially variable organization configuration capabilities, and their involved structures that can greatly slow locating and/or compiling diverse forms of information. 
     Primarily, the software tools that have been previously made available for users to access, organize, and/or interact with the panoply of information sources have been designed by software engineers who are focused on accomplishing new functionalities and advances in software design from the perspective of a designer, not a user. While this trend has been at least partially reversed in recent years, the legacy of many prior IT design choices have become as ingrained into the common user&#39;s experience as has the qwerty keyboard layout design, irrespective of the concomitant compromises or design flaws inherent within these legacy technologies. Advances in technology, from improvements in processing capabilities to advances in communication pipeline bandwidth capacities, have both provided new functionalities as well as established new problems. Advances in software design have generally focused on utilizing to the fullest extent the potentials of these new capabilities, to the point where advances in hardware performance have been balanced (or surpassed) by advances in software technical demands. Hence, the user experience often does not improve, or may even degrade even with the expansions in potential functionalities, since the learning required to fully capitalize on these advances is frequently a greater obstacle than the absence of these functionalities. Rarely are the ease and intuitiveness of use of the IT tool considered to be a first priority of the designer, except for certain notable exceptions that are celebrated successes due in particular to their focus on the user experience first and foremost. 
     The ever expanding bandwidths of modern communication links, and of data storage capacities also present their own opportunities and challenges. It is virtually undeniable that access to more information is an advance, and yet it is far harder to find a particular piece of information and/or organize a group of information when the pieces of information number in the millions or billions, than when they number in the hundreds or even thousands. Perception and cognition research has identified varying ways in which humans more naturally recognize and/or locate information than the standard manners in which information is generally presented and/or organized by the majority of IT resources. For example, a human will generally identify a specific item from among a large group of items more readily when that item is identified with a known image than when that item is identified with a textual label. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop software tools that will provide an IT user with more efficacious ways to access, organize, and/or interact with information. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention, in its various embodiments, comprises systems for, methods of, and computer program products capable of providing a nestable user interface for accessing, organizing, presenting, and/or interacting with visual representations of data on a display. Displays able to be used in conjunction with the present invention are generally aspects of a computer system, but can also include essentially any form of display that can receive and present the appropriate visual representations of data. The present invention, also referred to as a MicroSpace, is a nestable multi-level user interface that presents a flexibly organizable, extensible workspace. A MicroSpace nestable user interface enables organizing items according to differing paradigms, such as by topic regardless of file type. Constituents of a Microspace nestable user interface can include hyperlinks, documents, podcasts, images, videos, discussions, charts, and myriad other forms of information. A MicroSpace nestable user interface according to the present invention provides a form of container for the information that populates it, but unlike a folder model, this container is more analogous to a glass box in which the user can readily ascertain the contents before the box is even opened. 
     The levels of a first significant embodiment of the MicroSpace nestable user interface, labeled first through fourth tiers, can also be referred to as workspace (uppermost first tier), group (lower second tier), page (still lower third tier), and component (lowermost fourth tier). The MicroSpace nestable user interface is visible in a first area of a display and has at least two primary modes, a first mode comprising at least one navigation bar and at least one first visual representation panel, and a second mode comprising at least one larger second visual representation panel and at least one constrained area breadcrumb bar that maintains a visual series of indicators of the path the user followed to and within the second mode of the MicroSpace nestable user interface. When in the first mode, the MicroSpace nestable user interface presents the navigation bar, showing a hierarchical list view of the tiered organizational structure of the contents of the MicroSpace nestable user interface, and presents within the first visual representation panel a preview of the contents of the MicroSpace nestable user interface, organized in accordance with the tiered organizational structure. The second and third tiers are effectively optional, since they can be configured to be effectively inactive, but can also provide additional manners of categorizing and arranging the contents of the MicroSpace nestable user interface, as determined by the establisher(s) and/or user(s) of a MicroSpace nestable user interface. Any of the tiers, or their contents, are addressable and accessible over a network, in accordance with various markup languages. A variety of functions provided by the MicroSpace nestable user interface enable a user or establisher to effect substantial and fundamental customization and utilization functions that allow the MicroSpace nestable user interface to be widely altered in form, content, and function as needed. In practice, a MicroSpace nestable user interface will generally be configured with an identifying background image that enables ready recognition and location of that MicroSpace nestable user interface. This background image can be of particular utility when the contents of the MicroSpace nestable user interface include additional nested MicroSpace nestable user interfaces that are displayed in compacted form in the first visual representation panel. 
     Among the functions available to a user when interacting with various embodiments of the MicroSpace nestable user interface are (a) viewing thumbnail images, and other compacted representations, that signify various contents of the MicroSpace nestable user interface, (b) hovering to enact previews, (c) zooming of a preview, (d) pinning, and (e) leaping. Perceiving thumbnail views are a well known aspect of virtually any user or designer IT experience. The hovering to enact previews can work in at least two manners. Hovering over a constituent of the hierarchical list view in the navigation bar invokes a preview of that constituent, and indications of its contents, in the first visual representation panel, while hovering over a content component already displayed within the first visual representation panel invokes an expanded partial detail view to arise over a fraction of the first visual representation panel. Once such an expanded partial detail view has been invoked, hovering over it will then zoom that expanded partial detail view so that it encompasses a majority of at least the first visual representation panel, and can then display a larger portion of the content component that was first hovered over. The hovering over a constituent of the hierarchical list view to invoke the preview of that constituent will generally end that preview when the hovering ends, but if that constituent is activated, for example by “clicking” on it, then the preview is pinned and thus caused to remain after the hovering has ended. When the constituent displayed in the first visual representation panel is a second nested Micro Space nestable user interface, at least one portion of its representation, often signified by a selected image, is an actable signifier that when activated, by “clicking” for example, the second MicroSpace nestable user interface, initially in the first mode, then leaps by expanding to at least encompass most of the display area occupied by the first MicroSpace nestable user interface, accompanied by the breadcrumb bar that provides compacted visual images (often images that represent the respective MicroSpace nestable user interfaces&#39; background images) representing a path to the current view. When the leaped second MicroSpace nestable user interface also contains a nested third MicroSpace nestable user interface which is in turn leaped into, then the breadcrumb bar will display compacted visual images that represent, in order, the first, second, and third MicroSpace nestable user interfaces, respectively. Clicking on the compacted visual image of the first MicroSpace nestable user interface will return the user to the original view of the first MicroSpace nestable user interface. 
     Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface at a workspace level showing the parts of the nestable user interface. 
         FIG. 2  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface at a workspace level showing the subparts of the nestable user interface. 
         FIG. 3  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface at a group level view. 
         FIG. 4  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface at a page level view. 
         FIG. 5  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface showing sample interaction with a component. 
         FIG. 6  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface at a group level zoom view. 
         FIG. 7  is a view of a first embodiment of a nestable user interface at a page level zoom view. 
         FIG. 8  is a view of a first embodiment of a nested nestable user interface that has been leaped into. 
         FIG. 9  is a view of a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine ShowWorkspace (WorkspaceID). 
         FIG. 10  is a view of a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine ShowGroup (GroupID). 
         FIG. 11  is a view of a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine ShowPage (PageID). 
         FIG. 12  is a view of a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine Leap (WorkspaceID). 
         FIG. 13  is a view of a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine Leap (WorkspaceID). 
         FIG. 14  is a view of a JavaScript® routine for a call to an Internet (or other network address). 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     In the following description, identical numbers indicate identical elements. Where an element has been described in one Figure, and is unaltered in detail or relation in any other Figure, said element description applies to all Figures. 
     Information technology in general, computers and computing devices, data networks accessed by computers and computing devices, and related technologies are well known and pervasively utilized aspects of modern societies. A virtually innumerable number of publications abound in the public space that describe and delineate essentially every aspect of these technologies and the fundamentals and characteristics are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. A substantial number of patent publications also explicate these aspects including, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,219,305; 6,243,093; and 6,046,739 (in regard to  FIG. 1 ) as well as countless others. These IT background and infrastructure basics are therefore so well known that they will not be addressed in greater detail herein, since they are understood even to those who have barely a beginners skill in the art, much less those of ordinary skill in the art. 
     The present invention is explicitly designed and implemented to be greatly malleable in its manner of use, its implementation, and in its configuration. Hence, it is important to understand that the embodiment examples described herein are illustrative examples only and are not indicative of any constraints on the range of variety of the present invention, nor are they intended to be limiting in any manner. The exemplary embodiments described herein are, however, useful to indicate and illustrate certain significant features of the present invention, and are thus presented to improve understanding of the present invention. A first significant embodiment of the present invention is shown in various states and arrangements in  FIGS. 1-8 , as would be seen by a user of the exemplary first embodiment.  FIG. 1  shows an initial view of a first embodiment in a common first mode first state configuration  10 . Said first mode first state configuration  10  presents a layout that includes a desktop bar  20  that shows thumbnail representations  22  of selected desktop level nestable user interfaces. These thumbnails  22  provide indications of, and optionally links to, the other desktop level nestable user interfaces. A title bar  24  displays the title of the presently open nestable user interface. A navigation bar  26  displays the hierarchical list view of groups  30  and pages  32 , and a first visual representation panel  28  is disposed alongside the navigation bar  26 . In  FIG. 2 , the first visual representation panel  28  is seen to contain groups  34  and pages  35 , displayed in correspondence to the organizational structure of the hierarchical list view in the navigation bar  26 . The groups  34  and pages  35  are identified with group headings  38  and page headings  40 . 
     As seen in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , various actions by the user will enact differing nestable user interface view events. In  FIG. 3 , when the title bar  24  is hovered, the title bar  24  is highlighted, and a preview of all of the groups  34 , pages  35 , and content components  36  are displayed (sometimes in compacted or abbreviated form, depending on the volume of content) in the view area. When a group  42  on the navigation bar  26  is hovered, the group  42  is highlighted, and a full view  44  of the group  42  is displayed in the first visual representation panel  28 . As seen in  FIG. 4 , when a page  46  on the navigation bar  26  is hovered, the page  46  is highlighted, and a preview of all of the components  48  in the page  46  is displayed in the first visual representation panel  28 . As seen in  FIG. 5 , when a content component  58  in the first visual representation panel  28  is hovered, it can respond by displaying additional information or an additional view  60 . These action variations are dependent on the component and its nature, and is independent of the nestable user interface. A pinning action occurs when the title bar  24 , group  34  or page  35  on the navigation bar  26  is clicked, it becomes pinned. Other items in the navigation bar  26  or title bar  24  can be hovered and previewed when a differing aspect is pinned, but when the mouse moves over the first visual representation panel  28 , the pinned item reappears. Items can be unpinned by clicking on them again, or by pinning another item. 
     As seen in  FIG. 6 , when a group  50  in the first visual representation panel  28  is hovered and a scroll wheel used by the user is rolled forward, a zoom of the group  50  is brought forward and displayed, and when the scroll wheel is rolled backward, the group  50  is placed back. As seen in  FIG. 7 , when a page  52  in the first visual representation panel  28  is hovered and the user&#39;s scroll wheel is rolled forward, a zoom of the page is displayed, and when the user&#39;s scroll wheel is rolled backward, the page  52  is placed back. And as seen in  FIG. 8 , a content component  36  can be of varying natures including another nestable user interface nested within the original nestable user interface. When a content component  36  indicating another nested nestable user interface is clicked, its thumbnail  56  is added to the breadcrumb bar  54 , and the previously nested nestable user interface fills the full interface area. This jump to the new nestable user interface is termed leaping. Successive leaps are added to the breadcrumb bar  54  that maintains and displays a breadcrumb trail. Hovering over any one of the thumbnails  56  then shows that thumbnail&#39;s associated nestable user interface. 
       FIGS. 9-14  show various JavaScript® routines that are variously implemented by the present invention to effect its various functions and actions.  FIG. 9  is a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine ShowWorkspace (WorkspaceID) with the parameter identifying the particular workspace being generically illustrated as “WorkspaceID”.  FIG. 10  is a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine ShowGroup (GroupID) with the parameter identifying the particular group being generically illustrated as “GroupID”.  FIG. 11  is a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine ShowPage (PageID) with the parameter identifying the particular page being generically illustrated as “PageID”.  FIG. 12  is a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine Leap (WorkspaceID) invoked when the relevant active signifier (usually a thumbnail image indicating the relevant nestable user interface) is selected, generally by clicking a mouse, with the parameter identifying the particular workspace being generically illustrated as “WorkspaceID”.  FIG. 13  is a flow chart of the JavaScript® routine Leap (WorkspaceID) invoked when the relevant breadcrumb bar signifier (usually a thumbnail image indicating the relevant nestable user interface) is hovered over with the parameter identifying the particular workspace being generically illustrated as “WorkspaceID”.  FIG. 14  is a JavaScript® routine for a call to an Internet (or other network address) that returns an XML http data response.  FIG. 15  depicts a representative example of html code that will produce a nestable user interface in accordance with the present invention, in a manner that is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. 
     In view of the above, it will be seen that the various objects and features of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results obtained. The examples contained herein are merely illustrative and are not intended in a limiting sense.