Patent ID: 7426703

Claim:
An apparatus for presenting a sequence of user interface pages to a user, comprising: page logic associated with an initial user interface page, wherein the page logic is configured to: detect the user's activation of a control provided by the initial user interface page; and form a token representative of the activation of the control; and a navigation module providing a hierarchical tree of nodes representative of the user interface pages in the sequence, wherein the navigation module is configured to: receive the token from the page logic; and determine another user interface page to present to the user by traversing the hierarchical tree of nodes based on a navigation instruction specified by the token; prevent display of one or more optionally displayed pages associated with the one or more deactivated nodes, wherein by deactivating a node, one or more associated pages are skipped during page traversal; determine characteristics of at least one dynamic node at run-time, wherein the characteristics function according to an associated strategy; display a sequence of pages, and upon termination of the sequence of pages, return to an initial summary page presented by a summary collection node; wherein at least two branches within the hierarchical tree are mutually exclusive, the exclusivity comprising a logical OR to restrict traversal of the hierarchical tree to be among nodes associated with only a selected branch from among the at least two mutually exclusive branches, thereby preventing future travel among nodes associated with unselected branches among the at least two branches.