Automated form layout based upon usage patterns

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9275029-B2
Application number	US-62926209-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2009
Priority date	Dec 2, 2009
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

Historical form usage information for a group of fields associated with a graphical user interface (GUI) form is analyzed with a computer processor. Usage characteristics for each of the group of fields associated with the GUI form is indentified within the historical form usage information. The GUI form is automatically changed based upon the identified usage characteristics for each of the group of fields. The changed GUI form is displayed on a display of the computing device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
analyzing, at a computing device in response to a form access event generated by the computing device, historical form input field usage information of a plurality of input fields associated with a graphical user interface (GUI) form referenced by the form access event;
identifying historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form within the historical form input field usage information;
automatically changing the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields by partitioning a subset of the plurality of input fields identified with higher usage characteristics relative to another subset of the plurality of input fields into a new form within a new tabbed portion of the GUI form;
displaying the changed GUI form comprising the new form within the new tabbed portion on a display of the computing device;
graphically highlighting at least one of the plurality of input fields within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the displayed changed GUI form with a displayed indication of the identified historical usage characteristics of the at least one of the plurality of input fields, comprising:
graphically highlighting, within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the displayed changed GUI form, the at least one of the plurality of input fields corresponding to detected frequency of use of the at least one of the plurality of input fields over time; and

where the new form within the new tabbed portion of the GUI form further comprises a set of selectable options that allow a user to select between reorganizing the subset of the plurality of input fields within the new form according to historical input field usage analysis of the user and historical input field usage analysis of a group of form users within which the user is a member and further comprising:
identifying the group of form users within which the user is the member associated with the subset of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form;
prioritizing the subset of the plurality of input fields within the GUI form for the identified group of form users; and
reorganizing the subset of the plurality of input fields within the new form responsive to different user selections of the set of selectable options within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the GUI form.

2. The method of claim 1 , where analyzing, at the computing device in response to the form access event generated by the computing device, the historical form input field usage information of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form referenced by the form access event comprises:
identifying, via the computing device, information entry events associated with each of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form within the historical form input field usage information;
summing, for each of the plurality of input fields, the identified information entry events associated with that input field; and
where:
identifying the historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form within the historical form input field usage information comprises associating a rank with each of the plurality of input fields based upon a quantity of the summed information entry events associated with each of the plurality of input fields; and
automatically changing the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields further comprises automatically changing the GUI form based upon the rank associated with each of the plurality of input fields.

3. The method of claim 1 , where automatically changing the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields further comprises:
changing a layout of the plurality of input fields within the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields.

4. The method of claim 1 , where automatically changing the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields further comprises:
prioritizing the subset of the plurality of input fields with the higher usage characteristics within the GUI form;
repositioning a display location for the prioritized subset of the plurality of input fields within the GUI form; and
changing an order of input fields within the prioritized subset of the plurality of input fields based upon relative priorities of the input fields within the prioritized subset of the plurality of input fields.

5. The method of claim 1 , where automatically changing the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields further comprises:
applying a form change rule to the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form; and
automatically changing the GUI form based upon the applied form change rule.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
modifying, via the computing device, one of a form definition and executable code associated with the GUI form to operate based upon the automatically changed GUI form; and
where automatically changing the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields further comprises one of rendering the GUI form using the modified definition and executing the modified executable code associated with the GUI form.

7. The method of claim 1 , where graphically highlighting, within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the displayed changed GUI form, the at least one of the plurality of input fields corresponding to the detected frequency of use of the at least one of the plurality of input fields over time comprises one of:
numerically identifying, as a displayed numerical graphical icon associated with the at least one of the plurality of input fields within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the displayed changed GUI form, an indication of the detected frequency of use of the at least one of the plurality of input fields; and
changing emphasis of the graphical highlighting of the at least one of the plurality of input fields within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the displayed changed GUI form in response to detecting changes to the detected frequency of use of the at least one of the plurality of input fields over time.

8. A system, comprising:
a display; and
a processor programmed to:
analyze, via the processor in response to a form access event generated by the processor, historical form input field usage information of a plurality of input fields associated with a graphical user interface (GUI) form referenced by the form access event;
identify historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields associated with the GUI form within the historical form input field usage information;
automatically change the GUI form based upon the identified historical usage characteristics for each of the plurality of input fields by partitioning a subset of the plurality of input fields identified with higher usage characteristics relative to another subset of the plurality of input fields into a new form within a new tabbed portion of the GUI form;
display the changed GUI form comprising the new form within the new tabbed portion on the display;
graphically highlight at least one of the plurality of input fields within the new form within the new tabbed portion of the displayed changed GUI form with a displayed indication of the id

Assignees

• Padgett Samuel G
• Rella Sreedhar
• Speicher Steven K
• Tabb Michael J
• IBM

Inventors

• Padgett Samuel G
• Rella Sreedhar
• Speicher Steven K
• Tabb Michael J

Classifications

• G06F40/174 Primary

  Form filling; Merging · CPC title

• G06F40/103 Primary

  Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents (automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191) · CPC title

• G06F3/04895 Primary

  Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting · CPC title

• G06F3/1431

  using a single graphics controller · CPC title

• G06F9/451

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title