WO2002017059A1

WO2002017059A1 - A user interface development system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2002017059A1
Application number: PCT/AU2001/001071
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Swift; Patrick Bettels-Blume; Elissa Doyle; David Johnson
Original assignee: Xerts International Limited
Priority date: 2000-08-25
Filing date: 2001-08-27
Publication date: 2002-02-28
Also published as: WO2002017058A1; WO2002017156A1; WO2002017060A1; WO2002017155A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a user interface development system for development of the visual aspect of a user interface. The system includes a first visual display of the visual aspect of a user interface substantially as it will be presented to a user and a second visual display of available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface. Available items are formed from an aggregation of objects and the system may provide to an operator developing the visual aspect of a user interface an immediate indication of the success or otherwise of any operation to include the available item in the user interface.

Description

TITLE

A user interface development system and method.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a user interface development system and method and more particularly to a system and method that enables a user of the system to construct a user interface that is to be presented to customers for the purpose of ordering goods and/or services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Computerised ordering systems that allow customers to order goods and/or services have been proposed but typically, these systems are operated by service staff who accept the order from the customer and operate the ordering system to place the order for the desired goods and/or services. Usually, service staff undergo training in order for them to obtain the necessary skills to effectively and efficiently operate such an ordering system.

Other systems have also been proposed where the customers operate a component of the computerised ordering system to directly place an order without the necessity of intervention by service staff. However, these systems are less common as they are generally considered to be too expensive for most environments that accept and process customer orders.

Computerised ordering systems comprise many advantages for customers seeking to order goods and/or services. Generally, the primary advantage in these types of systems is obviating the requirement for a customer to relay their order through a human operator, this process possibly involving delays whilst waiting for available staff to record the order and is subject to human error.

The high cost of computerised systems for collecting and processing orders generally results in the system being considered economically unjustifiable in many environments. In this respect, the two major cost components are the initial capital investment in the system and the ongoing cost for technical support. In the instance of an ordering environment where the items that may be ordered may change frequently, the cost of technical support to regularly update the system to reflect new offerings becomes significant.

For example, in a restaurant where items on the menu may change on a weekly basis, the cost of technical support for highly skilled operators to adjust the menu of available food items may incur substantial cost.

Accordingly, it is an advantage of the present invention to provide a system for the development of a user interface that may be constructed by a relatively low skilled operator thus avoiding the requirement, and hence cost, of highly skilled system administrators to perform such tasks.

The present invention is one of a five co-pending applications describing an interactive ordering system and the development and management thereof, the system having application in environments such as a restaurants, hotels, casinos and so on. For a full description of the system, the reader is referred to these five co-pending applications by the same applicant that relate to different aspects of the system, namely:

"A video and video management system for navigation through a user interface system". This aspect of the system enables the user to navigate through a hierarchical menu structure used in providing the user with selectable indicia.

"A user interactive system and method comprising profiles". This aspect of the system provides users with a choice of indicia that may be in a form of graphical images relating to their language and/or customs, whilst remaining transparent to the rest of the operating system.

"An interactive ordering and management system and method". This aspect of the system enables management of user orders and requests and provides information to the system operator.

"A user interface development system and method". This aspect of the system relates to the development of the user interface by subsequent use by users seeking to submit orders and requests. In particular, this aspect provides the ability for relatively low skilled operators to develop and/or modify the visual aspect of a user interface. "A user interface management system and method". This aspect of the system relates to the management of the user interface development system thus providing relatively high skilled administrators with the ability to provide low skilled operators with the facilities to develop and/or modify the visual aspect of a user interface.

Thus the present invention relates specifically to "A user interface development system and method". The contents of the other four co-pending applications are intended to be incorporated within the present specification by reference thereto.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the present invention provides a user interface development system for development of a visual presentation of a user interface including: a visual display means for displaying a user interface substantially as it will be presented to a user; and a visual display means to display available items for inclusion in the visual user interface; wherein upon inclusion of an available item in the user interface, an operator is provided with an indication of the success or otherwise of the inclusion operation.

The available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface may include graphical images, text or sounds, or any combination thereof.

In a preferred embodiment, the indication may be a visual indication and may include a graphical image. An indication may be provided for each included item in the user interface that may be updated subsequent to the inclusion operation.

Preferably, the displays of the user interface and the available items occurs substantially simultaneously thus providing an operator with a concurrent view of both displays.

In one embodiment, the display of the visual aspect of a user interface includes placeholders designating those portions of the user interface available for the inclusion of an available item. The placeholders in this embodiment are graphically presented to the operator and include boundaries that indicate to the operator the shape and size of the placeholder. Placeholders may be designated with a category thus defining the type of available items that may be placed into them. Where placeholders are associated with categories, selection of a placeholder may cause the display of available items of that category that are available for location in that placeholder.

The visual aspect of a user interface may be divided into portions with each portion containing at least one placeholder designated with at least one category of available item that may be located in the placeholder. Additionally, each portion of the user interface may also include a selectable icon which, when selected, causes a list of available items for placeholders in the corresponding portion of the interface to be presented to the operator.

Available items may be presented to the operator in the form of graphical images that may be selected and dragged into the vicinity of a placeholder for subsequent de-selection and location in the placeholder. In this instance, the graphical image will appear in the display of the visual aspect of the user interface in the location of the placeholder. Available items may also be formed from an aggregation of objects including attributes such as graphical images, sounds, text or combinations thereof. In the instance of an item comprising an aggregation of objects, the objects may be associated with a graphical image representing the available item that is presented to an operator in the list of available items.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the indication of the successful completion of an inclusion operation includes ensuring that valid associations exist between the graphical image representing an available item presented to the operator and the aggregation of objects forming the available item.

Available items may have at least one sound associated therewith such that the sound is replayed to user when the item is selected. Similarly, items may have functions associated therewith, those functions being executed when the item is selected on the user interface by a user. In the instance that sounds and functions may be associated with items, the operator of the user interface development system may select those sounds and functions.

In some instances, it may be preferable to present to a user of an ordering system additional offerings for certain selections. In this instance, where additional offerings may be presented to a user, the user interface development system may associate available items such that upon location of an item into a placeholder in the display of the visual aspect of the user interface, the system causes the display of associated placeholders representing the option to include additional related items. This reduces the requirement for an operator to remember which items have related items that could be included in the visual aspect of the user interface.

In a particularly preferred form of the invention, where an operator is required to create and/or edit a user interface for users who communicate in a language other than the native language of the operator, the graphical image representing an available item is associated with objects that describe the item in the language of the intended user. In this instance, all information provided to the operator may be in the native language of the operator thus enabling the operator to create a user interface for users who communicate in a language foreign to the operator.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of developing a visual aspect of a user interface wherein a first visual display of the visual aspect of a user interface substantially as it will be presented to a user and a second visual display of available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface is provided to an operator, the method including the following steps:

selecting an available item for inclusion in the visual user interface;

displaying the selected item in the visual user interface; and

providing to the operator an indication of the success or otherwise of the inclusion operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 details a screen image presented to an operator enabling the operator to edit the menu;

Figure 2 details a screen image during the process of adding food items to a menu; Figure 3 details a screen image when editing product sounds;

Figure 4 details a screen image when adding or editing button images;

Figure 5 details a screen image when adding or editing button sounds;

Figure 6 illustrates the screen where the operator selects a help image;

Figure 7 details a screen image that is displayed when a food item has been added to a menu and where the food item may have additional choices such as condiments;

Figure 8 details a screen image that is displayed when a condiment has been added to a menu and enabling an image for the condiment to be selected;

Figure 9 details a screen image that is displayed when a condiment has been added to a menu enabling a sound for the condiments to be selected;

Figure 10 details a screen image enabling limitation options to be associated with the number of condiment choices; and

Figure 11 details a screen image enabling special condiments to be associated with food items on the menu;

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The following detailed description of an embodiment of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. Although the description includes exemplary embodiments, other embodiments are possible, and changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing form the spirit and scope of the invention.

The present invention is well suited to the development of a user interface for an interactive ordering system in a restaurant or cafe environment where customers place orders for food and/or beverages. Of course, the invention is also suited to other environments such as hotels, supermarkets, airport terminals and the like where customers place orders for goods and/or services. In the example of a hotel, customers can usually order a range of services including room service, entertainment (such as in-house movies) and information services relating to events or places of interest in the vicinity of the hotel.

In the preferred embodiment, customers, or users, are provided with an ordering system which includes a visual display and a selection means enabling customers to select items from the visual display. Visual displays incorporating a touch sensitive selection means such that customers may touch the display in a region corresponding to a displayed item in order to select that item have been found to be particularly intuitive and relatively easy for customers to understand and use. This type of arrangement is also preferred by those with physical disabilities who may otherwise experience difficulty operating other types of selection means such as a mouse device as used with most personal computers.

Whilst ease of use of the ordering system interface is important for customers, it is an advantage of the present invention to provide a system enabling an operator of the system, such as a food and beverage manager of a restaurant or cafe, to develop and edit the user interface that will be presented to customers without the requirement for that operator to undergo extensive training to acquire new skills. In the example of a hotel, the operator developing and/or editing the user interface presented to customers may be a person responsible for the management of hotel services.

In the example of Figures 1 to 11, various screens are detailed that are presented to an operator of a restaurant, such as the food and beverage manager, enabling them to develop the user interface that the ordering system will present to a user. As menu items are likely to change on a regular basis, Figures 1 to 11 detail those aspects of the user interface development system that relate to constructing a menu of food items. However, it will be readily recognised that the user interface development system is equally applicable to constructing a menu of beverage items or service items. For example, service items may include a menu of items enabling customers to request video sequences or live television to be displayed, this aspect being suited to a range of environments including restaurants, hotels, airline travel services, etc.

Editing a Menu With reference to the screen detailed in Figure 1, upon initiating the user interface development system, an operator may select the option to edit the restaurant menu that is presented on the screen as a selectable button (10). At this stage, the operator could also choose to edit advertising displays that are presented to customers whilst they use the ordering system. This option is presented as another selectable button (12). The process of selecting and/or editing advertising displays is similar to that of selecting and/or editing restaurant menu items and will not be further described herein.

Having selected the "Edit Menu" button (10), the operator is presented with the screen detailed in Figure 2.

The screen of Figure 2 includes various graphical images which, when selected by the operator, execute functions relevant to the task of creating and/or editing a menu of food items. In particular, the exit icon (16) provides the operator with the ability to exit the current screen and return to the screen detailed in Figure 1. In addition, a graphical icon in the form of a rubbish bin (18) is also provided to the operator which, when selected, effects a delete function. Similarly, a graphical icon of a floppy disk (20) is provided for the purpose of effecting a save function. These icons along with drop down boxes (22, 24, 26 and 28) reside within a portion of the screen (14) that the operator may reference for the purpose of executing the functions available therein.

The screen image detailed in Figure 2 is divided into three main portions, namely the user interface portion (13), control portion (14) and the selection portion (15).

During the process of creating and/or editing a menu of food items, the operator is presented with a representation of the actual user interface substantially as it will be displayed to a customer in portion 13 of the screen. The control portion (14) and the selection portion (15) are not displayed to the customer and are only used by the operator during the process of creating and/or editing a menu of food items. The ability of an operator to directly view the user interface as presented to a user during the process of creating and/or editing a menu is particularly advantageous as the operator may place items on the menu taking into account the visual representation provided to the customer. This may be relevant in the placement and arrangement of food items on the menu such that they may be arranged in an order to assist ease of recognition and/or selection by a user. Additionally, the selection of a colour scheme to apply to various graphical images may be directly assessed by the operator at the time of selecting a colour scheme and immediately altered in the event that the choice of colour scheme is inappropriate.

Included in the operator control portion of the screen (14) are several drop down lists (22, 24, 26 and 28) that provide features that may be applied to the user interface. The image selection item 22 provides the operator with a choice of background images for the screen portion (13) that will be displayed to users. In the instance of Figure 2, a blank or "No Background" image has been selected.

Selection item 24 provides the operator with the ability to select a sound to accompany the background image for the screen that will be presented to users.

Selection item 26 enables the operator to choose a sound theme to be associated with graphical images in the user interface that effect a function. This type of graphical image is referred to as a "button" and the graphical image of a button is selected such that it clearly indicates to a user which function the button will perform when selected. Invariably, the graphical image of a button will include a textual reference as part of that image indicating the function of the button. In the instance of Figure 2, a sound theme referred to as "Sound Theme Two" has been selected as the sound theme for the selection of function buttons. Accordingly, upon selection of a function button by a user, a sound corresponding to "Sound Theme Two" will be reproduced through an amplifier and speaker arrangement such that it may be heard by the user.

Selection item 28 enables the operator to define an incidental event to occur after a user has made a certain number of selections on the user interface. For example, if a customer has made more than 10 selections on the menu screen, then a video sequence may be displayed to the user. This is particularly useful for situations where users may not understand how to navigate their way through the menu structure of the ordering system or how to correctly place an order. In this event, it is likely that the customer will make too many selections on a particular menu screen and as such, upon detecting more than 10 selections, a video sequence may be displayed prompting the user to request help or perhaps providing the user with basic information as to how to navigate through the menu screens or correctly place an order. The operator selection portion of the screen (15) includes a number of available items (30) for inclusion in the user interface that in the example of Figure 2 represent food items. In other instances, the selectable items may comprise sounds to be associated with food items, function button images, sounds to be associated with function button images, help item images, condiment images or sounds to be associated with condiment images. These available items are detailed in Figures 3 to 9 respectively. The operator selection portion of the screen (15) details all the available food items that may be located on the menu screen presented to a user for particular class or category of placeholders. In the instance of Figure 2, the menu screen relates to salads and as such, a complete list of available salads that may be located on the menu screen is provided. In the operator selection portion of the screen (15) the list of available salads are provided in a textual form. If the operator wishes to include a salad on the menu, they simply place a movable cursor such as a mouse pointer over the textual reference to the salad and select and drag that textual reference over a menu placeholder (32) and by deselecting the textual representation of the particular salad a graphical image representing the salad will appear in the vicinity of the placeholder (32). In the example of Figure 2, various food items in the form of salads have already been placed on the menu screen such as the "Galactic Salad" and the "Caesar Salad".

In the preferred embodiment, each graphical image representing a food item comprises an aggregation of four separate images namely, a graphical image presenting the food item in an unselected state, a graphical image representing the food item in a selected state, a larger image suitable for display to a customer once the food item has been selected and a graphical image for display to a user when the user elects to transmit an order for that particular food item.

In the example of Figure 2, a "Galactic Salad" (46) has been located on the menu screen in the left uppermost placeholder and if selected by a user, the larger graphical image presented to the user is displayed in the centre portion of the screen (13) as a larger image (86) for the customer to obtain a better view of the graphical image of the food item, and to view further detail with respect to the ingredients used to produce the food item.

The menu screen may include "door" icons that may be associated with various portions of the menu screen that will be presented to a user (13). In the example of Figure 2, numerous sets of door icons are identified (34 and 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 88 and 92) these icons enable the operator to select relevant images or associated sounds for that portion of the menu screen. The left most door icons (34, 38 42 and 88) allows the operator to display a list of available images for the placeholders in that portion of the user interface and when selected, the graphical image of the icon changes from a closed door to an open door and the list of available items relevant to that portion of the user interface are displayed in the operator selection portion of the screen (15). Similarly, when one of the right most doors (36, 40 and 92) are selected, the graphical image of the icon changes from a closed door to an open door and the available sound items relevant to the placeholders in that portion of the user interface are detailed in the operator selection portion of the screen (15).

The door icons 34 and 36 represent the available food item images and food item sounds respectively. In the particular example of Figure 2, door 34 has been selected and the available food items relevant to the placeholders (32) in the vicinity of the door icons (34) are detailed in the operator selection portion of the screen (15). The door icons in the centre portion of the menu screen (38 and 34) represent the available images and sounds for function buttons that may be added to the menu screen. The door icons (42, 44) residing in the lower left portion of the menu screen (13) represent the available images and sounds for a particular class of function buttons namely, those function buttons that provide help or assistance to customers and the door icons on the lower centre portion of the menu screen (88 and 92) represent the available images and sounds that may be located and associated respectively with the placeholders designated for condiments (33).

Having selected a food item from the operator selection portion of the screen (15) and located that food item into a placeholder (32), a condiment may be available for that food item and if so, additional door icons appear on the screen at the time of locating the food item into a placeholder (32). These additional door icons and placeholders enable the operator to locate available condiment images and associated sounds with those images to form the condiment portion of the menu screen. A special class of condiment referred to as a "DCR" condiment will be presented as an available choice to an operator in the event that a DCR condiment is relevant to a particular food item. A particular example of a DCR condiment is a thermometer represented as a single image with several temperature selections allowing a user to select rare, medium rare, medium or well done. Of course, this particular type of condiment is particularly well suited to meat food items. The DCR condiment is associated with only a single door icon as sounds are not applicable to this type of condiment image. This type of condiment image is described further in relation to Figure 11. In any event, the creation of placeholders for condiments in the user interface is determined by the user interface development system when an item is located in a placeholder for which condiments are applicable. As a result, the operator is not required to remember the particular food items for which condiments are available and the task of the operator in creating the user interface is thus simplified.

In the instance of Figure 2, condiment placeholders (33) are provided and upon selecting the appropriate door icons (88, 92), the available condiment selections will appear in the operator selection portion of the screen (15). Selection and location of a condiment into a condiment placeholder (33) may be effected in a similar manner as for selection and location of a food item into a food item placeholder (32).

When editing a menu screen, an operator may need to remove a food item from the menu. This may occur as a result of the kitchen's inability to supply a particular food item or simply as a result of a change to a menu. In this instance, food items may be removed from the menu by selecting the graphical image representing the food item in a placeholder and dragging that image over the rubbish bin icon (18) and deselecting the item. Similarly, condiments, function buttons and/or help buttons may also be removed in a similar manner. At any time, the operator may elect to save the menu screen by selecting the save icon (20). Having completed the task of creating and/or editing a menu screen, the operator may exit from the menu screen by selecting the exit icon (16) at which time the operator will be prompted to save any changes since the last execution of the save function.

Having selected door icon 34, a list of available food items for the menu screen is displayed in the operator selection portion of the screen (15). The list of available food items appears in a textual form and selecting and dragging the textual reference to a food item to be placed in a placeholder (32) causes the corresponding graphical image of the food item to appear in the region of the placeholder (32) into which the food item was dropped. To the right of the graphical image of the food item, four icons appear (23, 25, 27 and 29) in the form of a "tick" or "cross". Each of the icons (23, 25, 27 and 29) relate to an object, the aggregation of which form the set of graphical images required for that particular food item (namely, a selected state image, an unselected state image, a larger version of the image and an image to be displayed when an order for the item is placed). Upon location of the graphical image of a food item into a placeholder (32) a directory is searched in order to determine the accessibility of the various graphical images forming the required images for the food item. In the event that the various objects required to represent the food item are determined to be accessible, a "tick" icon appears for that object. However, in the event that an object cannot be accessed, a "cross" icon appears for that particular object. In this way, an operator can quickly determine whether or not the operation of locating a food item into a placeholder (32) has been successfully effected such that a customer will be presented with the various icons at the appropriate time. In the example of Figure 2, all of the objects forming the food item "Caesar's Salad" have been determined as being accessible by the system. Of course, in addition to determining accessibility of an object, the system may also perform various other checks to determine if the object's file is correctly named or in some way corrupted. Accordingly, a "tick" icon may represent more than a determination of the accessibility of an object's file.

In the instance of Figure 3, icon 23 relates to the object representing the selected state graphical image of the food item (Caesar's Salad), icon 25 relates to the object representing the deselected graphical image of the food item, icon 27 relates to the object representing the larger graphical image that is displayed in the centre portion of a menu screen as presented to a user and icon 29 relates to the object representing the graphical image displayed on the transmit screen when a user has ordered that particular food item.

Icon 58 represents the presence or absence of a sound associated with the food item within the placeholder (32). In the instance of the preferred embodiment, when icon 58 is a smiling face the sound associated with the food item matches the current sound theme. When the icon 58 is a straight face, the selected sound for the food item does not match the current sound theme and when icon 58 is a sad face, the selected sound for the food item is invalid. Again, the inclusion of an available item into the user interface, the operator is provided with a visual indication of the successful completion, or otherwise, of the operation.

Each menu screen in the user interface development system has associated rules for that screen which are regularly checked as a result of each action of an operator. For example, checks are performed to ensure that the operator does not locate the same food item on a menu screen more than once. In this respect, various other checks and tests may be performed to prevent an operator from making simple mistakes. Whilst creating and/or editing a menu screen, the user interface development system will arrange items located in placeholders such that placeholders are filled in sequence and no empty placeholders between filled placeholders occur. However, if the system has arranged items in placeholders in a sequence that the operator wishes to change, the operator may swap the contents of placeholders by simply selecting an item from one placeholder an dragging it into the vicinity of another placeholder and deselecting the item. In this instance, the contents of the placeholders are swapped. The sequence for ordering of items in place holders may also be altered by selecting an existing item from a placeholder and dragging it and locating it into the first available empty placeholder which causes the system to perform a rearrangement of items in placeholders in order to avoid the existence of an empty placeholder between filled placeholders.

Locating Condiment Images in Placeholders

The operator has the ability to include condiments in the user interface display for various food items. For example, it may be possible to add condiments to a food item such as the "Caesar's Salad" and the display presented to an operator is detailed in Figures 8 and 10.

With reference to Figure 8, the door icon 88 has been selected causing a list of available condiments (90) to be displayed to the operator in the selection portion of the display. To associate condiment images that will be located in condiment placeholders with a particular food item, the food item located in a placeholder is selected thus causing a larger and more detailed image of the food item to be displayed in the centre portion of the user interface display.

Condiment images representing all the available condiments for that particular food item may be selected from the operator selection portion of the screen (15) may be selected and located in an empty condiment placeholder in the same manner as locating food item images into food placeholders. In the example of Figure 10, an operator has selected bacon, chicken and prawns as available condiments for the Caesar's Salad. Once again, the user interface development system performs a series of checks after each operator action to ensure that the same condiment is not included in the available condiment placeholders more than once. In the example of the preferred embodiment, once a condiment has been located in an available condiment placeholder, the operator may be prevented from selecting that content from the operator selection portion (15) again. Each condiment image has an associated price that indicates to the customer the cost of adding that particular condiment to the food item.

As was the case for locating food items in placeholders, the location of condiment images in condiment placeholders causes the visual display of icons in the form of "ticks" or "crosses" thus indicating to the operator the successful completion of the operation of locating a condiment image in a condiment image placeholder.

In the preferred embodiment, the "tick" and "cross" icons are arranged horizontally to the right hand side of the condiment image. The left most icon represents the successful determination of accessibility or otherwise of the image representing the condiment in a deselected state, the next icon represents the same for the image representing the selected state and the right most icon represents the same for the image that is displayed on the transmit screen to a user when the particular condiment is ordered.

In addition, a "face" icon is also provided for condiment images. In the instance that a smiling "face" is displayed to the operator, this provides an indication to the operator that the condiment image is associated with the current sound theme for the user interface. A straight "face" indicates that all sounds are valid but the sounds are not part of the current sound theme and in the instance of a sad "face" the sounds associated with the condiment image is invalid.

In addition to the "tick" or "cross" icons and the "face" icon, the preferred embodiment also provides a further icon in the form of a coloured square. The shading or colour of the square represents the group of condiments and whilst in most cases the colour of these squares will be the same, there may be multiple condiment groups and as such, the colour of these squares will change with each colour representing a single group of condiment images.

Additionally, in the instance of condiments, the operator is also provided with a drop down selection box (94) that provides the operator with the ability to control the number of condiments that may be selected by a user when using the ordering system. The various options in this instance with respect to the selection of condiments during an ordering process are detailed as "0 or 1" (100), "1 only" (102) and "any" (104). In the instance of "0 or 1" (100), the user will only be able to select either no condiments or a maximum of one condiment for the food item. If the operator selects the option of "1 only" (102), the user must always select one condiment and in the event that the operator "any" (104) the user may select either none or as many condiments as are available.

An operator may select a condiment to be presented to a user as a default for a particular food item. In this instance, if the user does not wish to have the condiment with the food item they are required to deselect that particular default condiment.

To remove a condiment from a condiment placeholder, the graphical image representing the condiment is selected and dragged into the vicinity of the rubbish bin icon (18) and deselected in order to complete the removal operation. In this instance, as was the case for food items, the user interface development system will rearrange condiment images in placeholders to ensure a sequence of filled placeholders with no empty placeholders therebetween.

Sounds may be associated with condiment images as was the case for food items and this aspect is detailed in Figure 9 wherein the operator selection portion of the screen (15) comprises a list of available condiment sounds (96). An available condiment sound may be associated with a condiment placeholder by selecting the graphical image representing the condiment sound in the operator selection portion of the display (15) and dragging that graphical image into the vicinity of the condiment placeholder and deselecting the image thus completing the operation of associating a condiment sound with the condiment placeholder. Of course, this operation may cause the "face" icon to change thus providing to the operator an immediate visual representation of the success or otherwise of that particular operation.

As was the case for rearranging food items in placeholders, the operator may rearrange the order or sequence of condiment images in condiment placeholders by selecting and dragging a condiment image and locating it over an existing filled condiment placeholder. In this instance, upon deselecting the dragged condiment image, the system will cause the dragged image to locate the previously filled condiment image placeholder and relocate the existing condiment image into the placeholder vacated by the dragged condiment image effectively swapping the two condiment images in their respective placeholders. Of course, a condiment image may only be swapped with another condiment image and may not be placed into a food item placeholder. If this were to be attempted, the user interface development system will provide an error message to the operator. Special Condiment Images

A special condiment image is provided for cooked food items enabling users to select the extent to which the food item should be cooked. This is best illustrated in Figure 11 wherein a special condiment image (108) is displayed in the user interface portion of the display (13).

When an operator locates a cooked food item in a food item placeholder, the user interface development system causes a special condiment image placeholder to be displayed on the user interface display. As will be noted in Figure 11, the special condiment image placeholder has an associated door icon (110) which, when selected, causes a list of available special condiment images (112) to be displayed to the operator in the operator selection portion of the display (15). In the instance of Figure 11, there is only one available special condiment image. Location of a special condiment image into the special condiment image placeholder is effected in the same manner as locating images into other types of placeholders. For a relevant cooked food item, the special condiment image enables a user of the ordering system to indicate their preference with respect to the extent to which the food item should be cooked.

In the instance of the preferred embodiment, removal of a special condiment image from the user interface display is effected by a "local" delete function and as such, a "local" rubbish bin icon (114) is provided for this purpose. Removal of the special condiment image from the special condiment image placeholder may be effected by simply selected the special condiment image and dragging that image into the vicinity of the rubbish bin icon (114) and deselecting the image in order to complete the removal operation.

In the preferred embodiment, the user may select from normal and special condiments. Thus for any given food item there may be two different types of condiments. This may comprise a single special condiment image within which several normal condiment images may be displayed. For example, one may provide a choice for cooking temperatures for meat within a salad. Thus a user may be provided with choices such as Rare, Medium and Well Done as well as medium Rare and Medium Well Done. Accordingly, there may be a multitude of condiments within the single condiment image.

Locating a Function Button Image The operator may include graphical images in the user interface display that enables a user of the ordering system to execute various functions. To illustrate this feature in the preferred embodiment, the inclusion of an "add" button image will be described, the selection of this image enabling a user of the ordering system to add various items to an overall food and beverage order.

The user interface display of Figure 2 as presented to an operator has an available portion of the display for the inclusion of an "add" functional button. As such, two door icons (38, 40) are provided enabling the operator to cause the display of a list of available button images and sounds that may be located and associated respectively with the functional button placeholder (41). The available button images and sounds of the preferred embodiment are best detailed in Figures 4 and 5.

With reference to Figure 4, the operator has selected an "add" button image of the type "yellow tick on red" (66) and located this image in the functional button placeholder (41) thus causing a graphical image of the "add button" (68) to be displayed on the user interface portion of the screen (13).

The "add" button may be removed from the functional button placeholder in a manner similar to removal of food item or condiment images from their respective placeholders.

As was the case for food items and condiment placeholders, a sound may be associated with the functional button placeholder and upon selecting the door icon (40) a list of available functional button sounds is displayed to the operator in the operator selection portion of the screen (15). This aspect is best illustrated in Figure 5.

A "face" icon (72) is used to provide a visual indication to the operator of the status of any sound associated with the functional button placeholder. The various visual indications represented to the operator by the "face" icon (72) have a similar meaning as for the "face" icons for other types of placeholders.

Another type of functional button that may be included in the user interface is a type of button that is generally referred to as a "help" button. With reference to Figure 6, the user interface portion of the display (13) includes a help button placeholder (82) for the location of graphical images representing various types of help that may be provided to a user of the ordering system. To the left of the help button placeholder are two door icons (42, 44) which when selected, cause a list of available help images and sounds respectively to be displayed to an operator in the operator selection portion of the display (15). Location of a help image in a help placeholder is effected in a similar manner as for the location of food item or condiment images in placeholders of the relevant type. Similarly, removal of a help image is also effected in the same manner.

Additional graphical images in the form of "tick" or cross" icons and "face" icons may be provided to give an immediate visual indication to the operator of the successful completion or otherwise of a location and/or association operation as is the case for the location and/or association of images and sounds with placeholders.

Sound Themes

A sound theme may be associated with all buttons in a user interface by selecting a new sound theme from the list located in the drop-down box in the operator control portion of the display (14).

For example, if a new sound theme is selected such as "Sound Theme Two", the current status of the "face" icon for the Galactic Salad is a straight face were the Galactic Salad is not using the current sound theme, whilst Caesar's Salad has a smiling face confirming that it is using the current sound theme.

In a preferred form, the operator may cause all associated sounds in the user interface to adopt a selected sound theme.

The system of the preferred embodiment ensures that a sound cannot be placed onto a placeholder until it has an image of an available item located in the placeholder.

Conclusion

The present invention embodies numerous advantages including the provision of a system and method for developing a user interface for users seeking to submit orders for goods and/or services or request information. The user interface may be developed by a relatively low skilled operator such as a food and beverage manager in a restaurant or cafe or a Hotel Services Manager in a Hotel. Providing a relatively low skilled operator with a system to develop user interfaces substantially reduces the cost for developing and modifying such an interface. Additionally, the operator may be provided with items in the operator's native language although the items are associated with objects in another language thus enabling an operator to develop a user interface for users who communicate in a language other then the native language of the operator.

Dated this 27th day of August 2001

Xerts International Limited By their Patent Attorneys LESICAR PERRIN

Claims

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. A user interface development system for development of a visual aspect of a user interface including: a first visual display of the visual aspect of a user interface substantially as it will be presented to a user; and a second visual display of available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface; wherein upon inclusion of an available item in the user interface, an operator is provided with an indication of the success or otherwise of the inclusion operation.

2. A user interface development system according to claim 1, wherein available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface includes graphical images.

3. A user interface development system according to either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface includes strings of characters forming text.

4. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the first and second displays of the user interface and the available items respectively occurs substantially simultaneously thus providing an operator with a concurrent view of both displays.

5. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the indication provided to the operator is a visual indication.

6. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the indication includes at least one graphical image.

7. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the indication is provided for each item included in the visual aspect of the user interface.

8. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the indication may be updated subsequently to the inclusion operation.

9. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first display includes at least one placeholder designating the portion of the visual aspect of the user interface display available for inclusion of an available item.

10. A user interface development system according to claim 9, wherein placeholders are graphically represented and include a boundary which is visually discernible to an operator thus indicating to the operator the shape and size of the placeholder into which available items may be placed.

11. A user interface development system according to either claim 9 or claim 10, wherein placeholders are designated with at least one category of available item that may be located in the placeholder.

12. A user interface development system according to any one of claims 9, 10 or 11, wherein a list of available items acceptable for location in a particular placeholder is displayed to an operator upon selection of the placeholder by the operator.

13. A user interface development system according to any one of claims 9, 10, 11 or 12 wherein the visual aspect of the user interface is divided into portions with each portion containing at least one placeholder designated with at least one category of available items that may be located in the relevant placeholder.

14. A user interface development system according to claim 13, wherein each portion of the visual aspect of the user interface display includes a selectable icon which, when selected, causes a list of available items that may be located in placeholders in that portion of the display to be presented to the operator.

15. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein available items are presented to an operator in the form of graphical images that may be included in the visual aspect of the user interface by selecting and dragging the graphical image of an available item into the vicinity of a placeholder and deselecting the item thus causing the item to be located in the region defined by the placeholder.

16. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein available items are formed from an aggregation of objects including any one or more of the following attributes, or a combination of any one or more of the following attributes: graphical images; sounds; and text.

17. A user interface development system according to claim 16, wherein objects forming an available item are associated with a graphical image representing the available item.

18,. A user interface development system according to any one of claims 15, 16 or 17, wherein the indication of successful completion of an inclusion operation includes ensuring valid associations between the graphical images representing an available item and associated objects of the available item.

19. A user interface development system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein available items may have at least one associated sound for replay to a user upon selection of that item from the visual aspect of the user interface.

20. A user interface development system according to any one of claims 9 to 19, wherein items located in placeholders may have associated functions that are performed when an item is selected by a user in the visual aspect of the user interface, the associated functions being selectable by the operator.

21. A user interface development system according to any one of claims 9 to 20, wherein upon location of an available item in a placeholder, additional placeholders are displayed to the operator in the event that the located item has associated placeholders for additional items.

22. A user interface development system according to any one of claims 16 to 21, wherein available items are presented to the operator in the native language of that operator, although objects forming the available item includes images and/or text in a language foreign to the operator thus enabling the operator to develop the visual aspect of a user interface for users who communicate in a foreign language.

23. A method of developing a visual aspect of a user interface wherein a first visual display of the visual aspect of a user interface substantially as it will be presented to a user and a second visual display of available items for inclusion in the visual aspect of the user interface is provided to an operator, the method including the following steps:

selecting an available item for inclusion in the visual user interface;

displaying the selected item in the visual user interface; and