Patent ID: 8209327

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for enabling a user to search for and display information, comprising: a) enabling a searchable database of product records to be accessible to the user, said 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 enabling data contained in the database to be displayed on the user's computer and for enabling user input to be received; and c) enabling a search of the database to be performed in response to a query submitted by the user, and providing results of the database search to the user, including enabling the user's computer to: display 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 product records; display next to an attribute value in the list of attribute values a corresponding user interface element comprising a set of selectable sub-elements, wherein each selectable sub-element corresponds to a predetermined rank and corresponds to a predetermined subset of possible attribute values for an attribute; and display as highlighted a single selectable sub-element of the selectable sub-elements of the user interface element, wherein the highlighted selectable sub-element has a predetermined rank matching a corresponding rank of the attribute value; and d) enabling, when a sub-element is selected by a user, the current selected set of product records to be constrained 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 selected sub-element.