1) On the right, a range of tabs allows each and every user to find back his or her own explorer and selections.

2) Below, an icon gives access to a « conversational » contextual help. Conversational is a Tree Logic specialty feature. It is an expert dialogue devised to guide the user when using the software or solving PC problems.

Initially, only the pages on the left are completed. They list files according to the categories described on right hand tabs (here : « sounds »), located by Tiara Explorateur on the hard disc.  You just need to double-click on a file to open it and discover its content.

Sometimes, a categories contains several subtypes. In this case, several tabs will show on the left (here : « Music », « MP3 », « Other »). They may be customized (any desired extension can be added to any lefthand item).

The user selects the files he or she is interested in and moves them to the right. The interesting documents are the ones you use often (interest : time saving when launching them) and the ones which are important and which you want to remember (interest : memo function)

Here is the result in the « Software » category once you’ve made the desired selections :

The Software category presents three specific features:

1) The only software files displayed on the left are the ones which Tiara Explorateur thought interesting for the average user (that is, nor a developer neither an OS administrator).

2) The category contains on the right five subtypes to be specified by the user (Games, Work, Communications, Culture, Private), which will help him/her to locate more easily a selected software.

3) The files displayed on the right are substracted from the left page, to allow it to be reduced and simplify the search of new selections. This way, left-hand pages differ according to the users.

Of course, Tiara Explorateur may be customized in such a way that, when set up, certain software (e.g., Word, Excel) and certain contents (e.g., video, games) will already be selected and allocated to right-hand categories, without any action from the user.

A user-defined comment can be attached to each selection installed on the right (clip button, see under). This button allows the user to make any software related comment, for him/herself or for other users. He/she may then describe the software or signal some important features (e.g., bugs, interesting functions, how to use them…). Using this button, the user can also change the software name.

Shown below, the “Folders” category. Tiara identifies the folders present on the Windows Desktop and selects the first 7 ones. The content of each folder may be accessed through the 7 left-hand tabs. The files displayed in a folder have the merit of being relevant to the same domain and being clearly labeled. Thus, the user does not have to change their name nor to choose a category they would fit in.

Shown below, the Internet category, arguably the most important of all categories. It displays on the left any preferred item found in Internet Explorer, plus the URLs registered by the user him/herself in Tiara Explorateur (using the “+” button, bottom). The process of finding a prefered item is not so simple. First of all, you have to know what is the favourite option of your browser and how to use it. Second, you have to know how to select the favourites list is to be found, check each of them individually even when not knowing their exact name - often a fairly obscure one - before you can find the relevant URL. Tiara Explorateur offers a simple and standard approach covering any imaginable item you might find on a PC. Once the users get used to it, they will refuse any other tool.

In this page, for instance, Tiara Explorateur offers a direct access to what is truly important for you as an user :

1) Access to your banking account

2) A range of sites which allow you to download free softwares

3) The Phone Book

4) A reverse phone book (to know an adress from a phone number)

5) A free videos downloading site

6) Listening your preferred web radios

7) Two peer-to-peer sites

8) Road mapping services (route creation, city maps, etc.)

9) Business sites

10) Local weather forecasts

11) Sites about sensitive personal issues

In the “Other” category are to be found documents which did not match previous categories : Excel, Access, Works files. This category may be customized. You can use the extensions you want and even rename the tabs.

If the user needs information on how the software works, future releases or help about its PC, he just needs to click on a contextual help button at the bottom of each page. This button opens a “conversational” guide, which is TREE LOGIC specialty, that is an expert dialogue through which Tiara Explorateur guides the user step-by-step towards the solution.

This conversational guide is in fact an expert system, which functions according to a programmed reasoning. It uses Artificial Intelligence techniques and a development tool we devised : Maïeutica. This tool allows a fast building of dialogues, diagnosis help, intelligent guides, on the Web as well on voice servers, and to update them even more quickly.

The conversational dialogue may be used for marketing purposes, and the captured informations can be saved for a statistical analysis on the provider’s and/or the vendor’s website.

It may be customized easily according to the provider or the vendor.