Patent ID: 7885956

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: a) storing a database of product records describing products belonging to a family of products; wherein each of the product records contains a collection of attribute values specifying distinct attributes of a product in the family of products; b) providing a user interface to the database for displaying to a user data contained in the database and accepting user input; and c) responding to the user input; wherein the user interface comprises computer executable instructions for: displaying in a single view a list of attribute values of a product record in the database, wherein the list of attribute values corresponds to a list of distinct attributes of a current product record contained in a current selected set of the product records; displaying next to an attribute value in the list of attribute values a corresponding user interface element comprising a set of clickable sub-elements arranged in a linear sequence, wherein each clickable sub-element of the clickable sub-elements corresponds to a predetermined rank and corresponds to a predetermined subset of possible attribute values for an attribute; displaying as highlighted a single highlighted clickable sub-element of the clickable sub-elements of the user interface element, wherein the highlighted clickable sub-element has a predetermined rank matching a corresponding rank of the attribute value; displaying, on mouse-over of a selected sub-element of the clickable sub-elements, a pop-up text element; wherein the pop-up text element displays: i) a set of possible attribute values having a common rank, wherein the common rank matches the predetermined rank of the selected sub-element and ii) decision support information associated with each attribute value in the set of possible attribute values displayed in the pop-up text element; wherein the decision support information includes information chosen from the group consisting of a price range of product records having the attribute value, a percentage of users who have selected the attribute value, and a percentage of users who have purchased a product with the attribute value; and submitting, when a sub-element is clicked by a user, a query constraining the current selected set of the product records to a subset of the current selected set of product records, wherein each product record in the subset has an attribute value within the set of possible attribute values associated with the clicked sub-element; wherein responding to the user input comprises receiving the submitted query, performing a database search in response to the query, and providing results of the database search for display.