Search system interface

A method of operating a system to provide a system interface, said system comprising a display and a pointing device, said method comprising:

• i) controlling said display device to display a system output mapping area;
• ii) receiving mapping inputs from said pointing device, the mapping inputs being indicative of:
• a) a plurality of sub-areas of said system output mapping area, at least one of the plurality of sub-areas having a different shape than another one of the plurality of sub-areas;
• and
• b) one or more system output component categories attributed to each of said sub-areas;
• iii) further controlling said display device to display,
• a reference framework indicative of a way in which different parts of the mapping area map to different parts of a heterogeneous composite digital item;
• and
• for each sub-area, a visual indication of the extent of said display sub-area in association with a map symbol symbolising the attribution of said system output component category to that sub-area;
• whereby the user is able to draw a map symbolically representing the arrangement of components in different categories which the user wishes to see in heterogeneous composite digital items returned by the search system;
• iv) generating search data from said mapping data by converting data defining each of said plurality of sub-areas drawn by the user to data defining a corresponding system output region, and associating the system output component category attributed to that display sub-area by the user with that system output region;
• v) passing said search data to said search system;
• and
• vi) receiving one or more heterogeneous composite digital items, or identifiers thereof, from the search system in response to passing the search data to the search system.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer having a display and a pointing device to:

• i) control said display device to display a system output mapping area;
• ii) receive mapping inputs from said pointing device, the mapping inputs being indicative of:
• a) a plurality of sub-areas of said system output mapping area, at least one of the plurality of sub-areas having a different shape than another one of the plurality of sub-areas;
• and
• b) one or more system output component categories attributed to each of said sub-areas;
• iii) further control said display device to display,
• a reference framework indicative of a way in which different parts of the mapping area map to different parts of a heterogeneous composite digital item;
• and
• for each sub-area, a visual indication of the extent of said display sub-area in association with a map symbol symbolising the system output component category attributed to that sub-area;
• whereby the user is able to draw a map symbolically representing the arrangement of components in different categories which the user wishes to see in heterogeneous composite digital items returned by the search system;
• iv) generate search data from said mapping data by converting data defining each of said plurality of sub-areas drawn by the user to data defining a corresponding system output region, and associating the system output component category attributed to that sub-area by the user with that system output region, the search data specifying arrangements of categorised constituent parts which the user wishes to see in heterogeneous composite items return by the search system;
• v) pass said search data to said search system;
• and
• vi) receive one or more heterogeneous composite digital items, or identifiers thereof, from the search system in response to passing the search data to the search system.