Patent ID: 8205171

Claim:
In a computer system having a processor, a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface device communicatively coupled to the processor, the processor being configured to execute code stored in a computer-readable medium for operating the user interface device, the computer-readable medium comprises: code for obtaining information representing a plurality of entities and relationship data associated with the plurality of entities, the plurality of entities and the relationship data associated with the plurality of entities being stored in a memory, each of the plurality of entities including data being associated with a plurality of categories, the plurality of categories including a first category and a second category, the plurality of entities including a first entity and a second entity, the first entity including a first data set associated with the first category and a second data set associated with the second category, the second entity including a third data set associated with the first category and a fourth data set associated with the second category; code for defining a menu region and a display region within the graphical user interface, the menu region including a global selection menu, the global selection menu including selections for the first category and the second category; code for displaying the plurality of entities within the display region, the plurality of entities being displayed as nodes of a hierarchical chart based on at least the relationship data, each of the nodes displaying a default data set, each of nodes including a selection menu, the first entity including a first selection menu, the second entity including a second selection menu; code for receiving a first user input by the user interface device; code for processing the first user input; code for updating data displayed on one or more nodes based on the user input; wherein: each of the plurality of nodes displays information associated with the first category if the first category is selected at the global selection menu; if the first category from the first selection menu is selected, a first node corresponding to the first entity displays information from the first data set and information displayed at a second node corresponding to the second entity is unaffected by the user input.