One step selection of disabled options

摘要

Information associated with an unavailable option is provided to a user upon detecting the user's interest in that option in a configuration environment or user interface control environment. The provided information may explain why the option is unavailable, what alternative options may be available, and which actions may be needed to render the option available. The user may be further enabled to unselect conflicting options or re-select among a subset of relevant options to render the unavailable option available without losing the context of the current selection screen.

主权项

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for selecting configurable options, the method comprising:
determining acceptable configurations of available options; presenting the available options to a user through a first user interface; upon receiving a user selection of one or more options on the first user interface, indicating at least one unacceptable option to the user employing one of: a textual scheme, a coloring scheme, a shading scheme, or a graphical element; upon detecting the user's interest in the at least one unacceptable option, presenting an explanation of a reason of unacceptability on a second user interface, wherein the second user interface enables activation of a third user interface; and presenting a detailed explanation of the reason of unacceptability on the third user interface and a control for enabling the user to deselect one or more previously selected options incompatible with the unacceptable option rendering the at least one unacceptable option acceptable and select a configuration that includes the at least one unacceptable option in one step through the third user interface; and upon detecting the user's selection of the control on the third user interface, rendering the at least one unacceptable option acceptable and selecting the acceptable rendered option in one step, wherein the third user interface is presented such that a context of a current selection view is preserved.