Clustering user interface

A method of presenting a user with selections of items, wherein each item has a position associated with the item and the position is a location in an N-dimensional space, N being predetermined number greater than zero, the method comprising the steps of:

• determining an initial display scale and initial display bounds;
• determining which items have positions which are within the initial display bounds;
• determining which of the items have positions which are within a clustering threshold of other positions and grouping such items into clusters;
• displaying unclustered items on the display so as to identify the item by position and as an unclustered item;
• displaying a cluster of clustered items so as to identify the cluster;
• and
• accepting user input selections of either an unclustered item or a cluster.

A method of presenting a user with selection of items, wherein each item has a position in a hierarchical structure, the method comprising the steps of:

• determining an origin point in the hierarchical structure;
• determining a weight for each of a plurality of links in the hierarchical structure;
• setting a threshold distance;
• clustering items in the hierarchical structure, wherein a cluster is a plurality of items whose path distance to another item in the cluster is less than the threshold, a path distance being a sum of the weights of the links traversed to reach either a common ancestor or to reach the other item which is clustered;
• displaying unclustered items on the display so as to identify the unclustered items as unclustered items;
• displaying a cluster of clustered items so as to identify the cluster;
• and
• accepting user input selection of either an unclustered items or a cluster.