Patent ID: 7560637

Claim:
A method of assisting user interaction with a multimedia asset player by way of a pathwise bi-directional user interface, said method comprising: displaying a first order user interface having a first list of user selectable items each of at least a plurality of which points to at least another list of user selectable items; receiving a user selection of one of the user selectable items from the first list, said receiving the user selection of one of the user selectable items from the first list including at least (i) successively highlighting one or more of the user selectable items from the first list using a rotational user action with respect to a user input device of the multimedia asset player and (ii) accepting a selection of one of the highlighted user selectable items; and automatically transitioning to and displaying a second order user interface based upon the selected one of the user selectable items from the first list, the second order user interface having a second list of user selectable items pointed to by the selected one of the user selectable items from the first list, wherein each of at least a plurality of the user selectable items in the second list points back to the corresponding one of the user selectable items in the first list and points forward to at least one user selectable item in a third list of user selectable items displayed by a corresponding third order user interface.