US Patent 7346858 Computer hierarchical display of multiple data characteristics

A data display comprises a window that shows a tree map display having menu information surrounding a field array of differently sized and colored or shaded areas that represent product offering possibilities that conform with user criteria entered through the surrounding menu windows. A Web site that uses the display technique may receive user criteria and retrieve a portion of collected data and display it to the user, so that the retrieved data describes a data subset that is responsive to the user criteria. The retrieved Web pages may be viewed to facilitate review of product offering information, and to facilitate purchase decisions that are transmitted from the Web site visitors.