Patent ID: 7730002

Claim:
A method of selecting one or more preferred decision objects, each decision object representing a form of a product, the method comprising the steps of: (a) presenting decision objects to a plurality of selectors over an electronic network; (b) obtaining information from at least one of the selectors representative of a preference among the presented decision objects; (c) using the obtained information to influence the structure of a derived group of at least one of the presented decision objects and thereby generating one or more derived decision objects; (d) repeating steps (a) through (c), using the one or more derived decision objects from step (c) as the presented decision objects, until a stopping condition is met; and (e) upon achieving the stopping condition, selecting one or more of the decision objects as the one or more preferred decision objects, wherein the product is selected from the group consisting of investment products, automobiles and subparts thereof; apparel, ensembles of clothing, shoes, watches, jewelry, toys, consumer electronics, recipes, foods, book or magazine covers, newspaper layouts, packaging, perfumes, scents, color palettes, fabrics, furnishings and interior designs, wallpaper, chairs, tables, lamps, couches, bed spreads, quilts, carpets, decorative objects, utilitarian objects, or parts thereof, silverware, flatware, crystal ware, fixtures, architecture, web sites and web pages, software, graphical user interfaces, software features; cable TV package, vacation packages, transportation schedules, academic programs or curricula; advertising materials such as printed advertisements, billboard messages, logos, diet plans, exercise plans, restaurant menus, store layouts; office layouts; direct marketing campaigns (fliers and inserts); e-marketing campaigns; business strategies; speech outlines, sales presentations, election campaigns, business plans, songs, jingles, and story lines.