Consumer profiling system with analytic decision processor

A method for generating a list of items from a product domain according to user preferences and requirements for attributes A(n), for n equal to 1 to N, of items in the product domain, comprising:

• supplying a specification in a machine-readable form to a processor, the specification defining a set of available choices for attribute A(n), where the set of available choices for attribute A(n) when n equals 1, includes the available choices for all items in the product domain, and includes the available choices for items in the set of remaining items when n is greater than 1;
• generating in response to the specification a prompt display prompting a user to input data indicating a preference or a requirement for attribute A(n) in the set of attributes, according to the set of available choices for the attribute A(n);
• receiving and storing the input data for the attribute A(n) in machine-readable memory readable by the processor;
• determining in the processor responsive to the input data and the specification a set of remaining items satisfying requirements for a subset of attributes A(i), for i equal to (n, n-1, . . . 1);
• repeating the steps of supplying, generating, receiving and storing and determining for attributes A(n), for n equal to 1 to N;
• and
• assigning and storing in machine-readable form, scores to items in the set of remaining items according to the input data indicating preferences for attributes and generating a results display presenting the items in the set of items to the user.

A method for generating a list of items from a product domain according to user preferences and requirements for attributes A(n), organized in a sequence for n equal to 1 to N, of items in the product domain, comprising:

• supplying a specification in a machine-readable form to a processor, the specification defining a set of available choices for attribute A(n), where the set of available choices for attribute A(n) when n equals 1 includes the available choices for all items in the product domain, and includes the available choices for items in a set of remaining items when n is greater than 1;
• generating in response to the specification a prompt display prompting a user to input data to the processor prompting a user to input one or both of preference data and requirement data for attribute A(n) according to the set of available choices for the attribute A(n), wherein the preference data comprises a variable associated with a particular attribute specified by the user to have a degree of relevance to a choice in the product domain, and the requirement data comprises a variable associated with a particular attribute specified by the user to be required or not required for a choice in the product domain;
• receiving and storing the input preference data and requirement data for the attribute A(n) in machine-readable memory readable by the processor;
• determining in response to the input preference and requirement data in the processor the set of remaining items satisfying requirements for a subset of attributes A(i), for i equal to (n, n-1, . . . 1);
• providing an indicator on the prompt display of a position in the sequence, and a count of the items in the set of remaining items to the user;
• repeating the steps of supplying, generating, receiving and storing, determining and providing for attributes A(n), for n equal to 1 to N, and
• assigning and storing in machine-readable form, scores to items in the set of remaining items according to the input data indicating preferences for attributes and ordering the items in the set of remaining items according to the scores;
• and
• producing a result display to present the set of remaining items to the user.