Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Dynamic User Interface (Ui) Framework”, for Approval (USPTO 20240146712): Citizens Financial Group Inc.

2024 MAY 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Ebeling, Christopher C. (Westwood, MA, US); GOTTIPATI, Kalyan C. (Phoenix, AZ, US); Mayerson, Jeffrey M. (Addison, TX, US); Mukhopadhyay, Sudip (Jamaica, NY, US); Muthu, Balamurugan (Phoenix, AZ, US); Nayak, Deepak (Dayton, NJ, US); Pearson, Ryan (Cumberland, RI, US); Roberts, Christine (Wayland, MA, US); Shah, Rajesh K. (Parsippany, NJ, US); Sufi, Arif (Harrison, NJ, US), filed on October 9, 2023, was made available online on May 2, 2024.

The patent’s assignee is Citizens Financial Group Inc. (Providence, Rhode Island, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Existing approaches for fully processing, from end-to-end, all aspects of complex multi-step workflow journeys require implementing multiple, independent solutions and systems. This is because complex multi-step workflow journeys, by definition, comprise multiple, often independent operational/processing requirements, each invoking any number of specialized processing operations, components and/or systems specifically configured for carrying out one or more of the operational/processing requirements. Since each of these specialized operations, components and/or systems has its own set of compatibility limitations, protocol(s), programming language(s), standards, etc., they operate independently of one another. As a result, existing approaches are unable to leverage, integrate or combine various processing operations, components and/or systems, leading to operationally redundancies, disjointed and inefficient processing, inconsistent end-user experiences, high latency, manual coordination of output between systems, high operating and maintenance costs, continual updating and maintenance, etc.

“To illustrate the foregoing concept, reference is made to Table 1 below. Table 1 includes an illustrative chart depicting (in tabular form) that different electronic lending products (e.g., student lending, credit card, personal loan, working capital, bilateral loan, commercial real-estate, etc.) may each be defined by a respective complex multi-step workflow journey. In other words, each electronic product journey may require and invoke a different combination of computer operations, components and/or systems for completing the same, where said computer operations, components and/or system may themselves be operating independently of one another.

“<tables id=’TABLE-US-00001’ num=’00001’>

<row><entry namest=’1’ nameend=’4’ align=’center’ rowsep=’1’ /><row><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry>Workflow Operations<tgroup align=’left’ colsep=’0’ rowsep=’0’ cols=’8’><colspec colname=’1’ colwidth=’42pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’2’ colwidth=’42pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’3’ colwidth=’56pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’4’ colwidth=’35pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’5’ colwidth=’35pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’6’ colwidth=’28pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’7’ colwidth=’28pt’ align=’left’ /><colspec colname=’8’ colwidth=’28pt’ align=’left’ /><row><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry>Issue/<entry /><row><entry>Entity<entry>Loan Type <entry>Products<entry>Originate<entry>Underwrite<entry>Process<entry>Disburse<entry>Service<row><entry namest=’1’ nameend=’8’ align=’center’ rowsep=’1’ /><row><entry>Consumer<entry>Unsecured<entry>Student Lending<entry>Sol. 1<entry>Sol. 13<entry>Sol. 25<entry>Sol. 37<entry>Sol. 49<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Credit Card<entry>Sol. 2<entry>Sol. 14<entry>Sol. 26<entry>Sol. 38<entry>Sol. 50<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Personal Loan<entry>Sol. 3<entry>Sol. 15<entry>Sol. 27<entry>Sol. 39<entry>Sol. 51<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Buy Now Pay <entry>Sol. 4<entry>Sol. 16<entry>Sol. 28<entry>Sol. 40<entry>Sol. 52<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Later<entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><row><entry /><entry>Secured<entry>Mortgage Loan<entry>Sol. 5<entry>Sol. 17<entry>Sol. 29<entry>Sol. 41<entry>Sol. 53<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Auto Loan<entry>Sol. 6<entry>Sol. 18<entry>Sol. 30<entry>Sol. 42<entry>Sol. 54<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Home Equity<entry>Sol. 7<entry>Sol. 19<entry>Sol. 31<entry>Sol. 43<entry>Sol. 55<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Line of Credit<entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><row><entry>Commercial <entry>Unsecured<entry>Commercial & <entry>Sol. 8<entry>Sol. 20<entry>Sol. 32<entry>Sol. 44<entry>Sol. 56<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Corporate<entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><row><entry /><entry /><entry>Credit Cards<entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><entry /><row><entry /><entry /><entry>Working Capital<entry>Sol. 9<entry>Sol. 21<entry>Sol. 33<entry>Sol. 45<entry>Sol. 57<row><entry /><entry>Secured<entry>Syndicated Loans <entry>Sol. 10<entry>Sol. 22<entry>Sol. 34<entry>Sol. 46<entry>Sol. 58<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Historical Loans<entry>Sol. 11<entry>Sol. 23<entry>Sol. 35<entry>Sol. 47<entry>Sol. 59<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Commercial Real <entry>Sol. 12<entry>Sol. 24<entry>Sol. 36<entry>Sol. 48<entry>Sol. 60<row><entry /><entry /><entry>Estate<row><entry namest=’1’ nameend=’8’ align=’center’ rowsep=’1’ />

“Although the different workflow journeys shown in Table 1 appear to share similar workflow operations/processing requirements (Originate, Underwrite, Process, Issue/Disburse, Service), factors such as product type (e.g., secured vs. non-secured), entity type (consumer, commercial, etc.), and others render them different. As a result, existing approaches require that each workflow journey associated with each type of product, separately initiate a respective combination of solutions, independently of other (similar) workflow journey solutions. As shown in Table 1, for example, despite having a respective Originate requirement, each of the listed products (e.g., Student Lending, Credit Card, Personal Loan, . . . Commercial Real Estate) requires a different Originate solution (e.g., Sol. 1, Sol. 2, Sol. 3 . . . Sol. 12), where each solution corresponds to a different combination of operations, systems, etc. This is due, at least in part, to the inability of existing technology and systems to integrate disparate operations, components and/or systems into a single platform, and/or their inability to leverage common and/or overlapping operations, components and/or systems across multiple workflow journeys, as discussed above.

“Indeed, even if a single user invokes multiple workflow journeys that share common or similar workflow steps (e.g., common processing requirements of common user data), existing approaches still require each of the same user’s workflow journeys to proceed independently of one another. That is, existing approaches are unable to leverage one instance of a particular set of operations (e.g., data collecting/processing), components and/or systems across multiple workflow journeys. Instead, multiple (redundant) instances of that particular set of operations, components and/or systems are needed, one for each workflow journey.

“To further illustrate, reference is made to FIG. 1 (which corresponds to Table 1 above). As shown, a particular entity (Consumer) 101 may wish to initiate, via a system interface 103, multiple complex multi-step workflow journeys 105,107, one each in connection with an electronic lending product (e.g., electronic Student Lending product 105 and an electronic Credit Card product 107). Each of these two journeys 105,107 involve similar/overlapping workflow steps (e.g., Originate 105a/107a, Underwrite 105b/107b, Process (not shown), Issue/Disburse (not shown), Service 105n/107n), and possibly one or more uncommon/journey-specific workflow steps (not shown). Despite these two workflow journeys 105,107 being initiated by the same user 101, defined by the same data, and sharing common/overlapping workflow steps 105a/107a-105n-107n (e.g., sharing common data and/or processing requirements), independent solutions are needed to complete reach respective workflow journey 130, 140. For example, Solution 110 is needed to accomplish the Originate portion 110 of the Student Lending workflow journey 105 (i.e., Solution 1), which differs from Solution 116 which is needed to accomplish the Originate portion 116 of the Credit Card workflow journey 107 (i.e., Solution 2). This means that different, multiple and redundant instances of systems, operations, etc. must be invoked to accomplish the respective Originate 105a,107a, Underwrite 105b,107b and Service 105,107n workflow steps, as well as any other workflow steps of the two workflow journeys 105,107 that may have similar, shared and/or overlapping data and/or processing requirements.”

There is additional background information. Please visit full patent to read further.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “According to one aspect, a unified platform may comprise a combination of independent frameworks that have been uniquely integrated and configured to collaboratively operate seamlessly. Each of the frameworks may comprise one or more computing devices, each comprising one or more processors executing computer-readable program instructions. The unified platform may comprise an authentication and authorization framework configured to receive, from a user device, access credentials for proceeding through one or more workflow journeys, determine at least one protocol, standard and format associated with the access credentials, determine an authentication of the access credentials based on authentication policy rules stored in one or more memory devices of the unified platform system, generate an authentication response, according to the determined at least one protocol, standard and format, based on the authentication policy rules, and transmit the authentication response to the user device.

“The unified platform may also comprise a dynamic user interface framework configured to identify, select and obtain, from the one or more memory devices, configuration and properties data associated with the user device, generate at least one web page for the one or more workflow journeys based on the configuration and properties data, generate web page metadata for the at least one web page based on the configuration and properties data, and deploy at least one web page and corresponding web page metadata, the at least one web page being configured specifically for the user device.

“In addition, the unified platform may comprise a workflow state management framework configured to determine that an initiate state event for the one or more workflow journeys has occurred, determine a next best step from among a plurality of next best steps for the one or more workflow journeys based on metadata associated with the initiate state event and on metadata associated with one or more other events, and initiate a flow between two or more states of the one or more workflow journeys based on the determined next best step.

“Moreover, the unified platform may also comprise a notification and active data loss and prevention (DLP) engine framework configured to capture a flow of data associated with the one or more workflow journeys, extract data objects from the captured flow of data, determine whether the data objects comprise sensitive data, classify the data objects based on the determination as to whether the data objects comprise sensitive data, and initiate at least one of an action and control when the data objects are classified as comprising the sensitive data.

“The unified platform may also comprise an orchestration engine framework configured to translate the flow of data to generate translated data based on a communication protocol, obtain, from the one or more memory devices, one or more rules, and perform one or more micro-service orchestrations based on the translated data and the one or more rules.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method may comprise receiving, from a user device, access credentials for proceeding through one or more workflow journeys, and determining at least one protocol, standard and format associated with the access credentials. The method may further involve determining an authentication of the access credentials based on authentication policy rules stored in one or more memory devices, generating an authentication response, according to the determined at least one protocol, standard and format, based on the authentication policy rules, and transmitting the authentication response to the user device.

“In some examples, the computer-implemented method may further include identifying, selecting and obtaining, from one or more memory devices, configuration and properties data associated with the user device, generating at least one web page for the one or more workflow journeys based on the configuration and properties data, generating web page metadata for the at least one web page based on the configuration and properties data, and deploying at least one web page and corresponding web page metadata, where the at least one web page is configured specifically for the user device.

“In some examples, the computer-implemented method may also include determining that an initiate state event for the one or more workflow journeys has occurred, determining a next best step from among a plurality of next best steps for the one or more workflow journeys based on metadata associated with the initiate state event and on metadata associated with one or more other events, and initiating a flow between two or more states of the one or more workflow journeys based on the determined next best step.

“Further, the computer-implemented method may comprise capturing a flow of data associated with the one or more workflow journeys, extracting data objects from the captured flow of data, determining whether the data objects comprise sensitive data, classifying the data objects based on the determining as to whether the data objects comprise sensitive data, and initiating at least one of an action and control when the data objects are classified as comprising the sensitive data.

“In some examples, the computer-implemented method may also include translating the flow of data to generate translated data based on a communication protocol, obtaining from the one or more memory devices, one or more rules, and performing one or more micro-service orchestrations based on the translated data and the one or more rules.

“To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals may have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A dynamic user interface framework comprising: one or more computing devices executing computer-readable program instructions that cause the dynamic user interface framework to: identify, select and obtain, from one or more memory devices, configuration and properties data associated with a user device; generate at least one web page for one or more workflow journeys based on the configuration and properties data; generate web page metadata for the at least one web page based on the configuration and properties data; and deploy the at least one web page and corresponding web page metadata, the at least one web page being configured specifically for the user device.

“2. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 1, wherein the configuration and properties data associated with the user device characterizes a type of the user device and a type of a browser of the user device, and wherein the dynamic user interface framework is configured to generate the at least one web page for the one or more workflow journeys based on the type of the user device and the type of the browser of the user device.

“3. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 1, wherein the dynamic user interface framework is further configured to: generate a dynamic and interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for the at least one web page in response to receiving a signal from the user device; and generate a prompt message comprising the dynamic and interactive GUI for transmission to the user device.

“4. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 1, wherein the one or more computing devices comprise a configuration engine configured to capture, store, maintain and update the configuration and properties data.

“5. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 1, wherein the configuration and properties data comprises one or more of universal resource locator (URL) data, web page layout data, forms data, fields data, sequencing data, and data structure information data for one or more types of user devices, web browsers and operating systems.

“6. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 4, wherein the configuration engine is further configured to generate, from the configuration and properties data, text-based data objects.

“7. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 6, wherein the text-based data objects comprise Javascript™ object notation (JSON) objects.

“8. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 6, wherein the one or more computing devices further comprise a dynamic forms engine configured to translate the text-based objects generated by the configuration engine, and to render, test and publish the at least one web page based on the translated text-based objects.

“9. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 8, wherein the dynamic forms engine comprises one or more of an abstract wrapper, a properties interpreter, a responsive web translator, a render engine and a publish engine.

“10. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 9, wherein the abstract wrapper is configured to translate the text-based objects from a standard text-based format to an extensible markup language (XML) format.

“11. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 10, wherein the properties interpreter is configured to interpret the configuration and properties data included in the translated text-based objects.

“12. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 11, wherein the responsive web translator is configured to render, based on the interpreted configuration and properties data provided by the properties interpreter, the at least one web page.

“13. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 12, wherein the render engine is configured to test the at least one web page rendered by the responsive web translator.

“14. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 13, wherein the publish engine is configured to publish the tested at least one web page.

“15. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 14, wherein the publish engine is further configured to generate one or more tags coded for structuring the tested at least one web page and its contents.

“16. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 15, wherein the one or more tags comprise hypertext markup language (HTML) tags.

“17. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 15, wherein the publish engine is further configured to generate text-based data objects including data for integrating the tested at least one web page into one or more system backend components.

“18. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 17, wherein the one or more system backend components comprise at least one of an application program interface (API), scripts and a database.

“19. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 17, wherein the one or more computing devices further comprise an aggregator engine configured to generate, from the text-based objects and tags generated by the dynamic forms engine, web page metadata comprising information and instructions to be carried out by the one or more system backend components to support the tested at least one web page.

“20. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 19, wherein the aggregator engine comprises a reference maps module that includes a data repository for storing at least one of a plurality of reference maps and index maps, the reference maps and index maps comprising instructions for invoking one or more functions, the one or more functions including at least one of grouping a plurality of web pages together.

“21. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 19, wherein the data repository comprises one or more of a local memory device and a cloud-based memory device.

“22. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 20, wherein the aggregator engine comprises an event generator configured to generate, based on the at least one of the plurality of reference maps and index maps, metadata characterizing a sequence of events for the one or more workflow journeys.

“23. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 20, wherein the metadata generated by the event generator is provided to the system backend components to support the one or more workflow journeys.

“24. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 23, wherein the metadata generated by the event generator are converted to text-based objects prior to being provided to the system backend components.

“25. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 19, wherein the aggregator engine is configured to operate in a runtime environment.

“26. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 19, further comprising a transceiver for transmitting one or more of the tested at least one webpage and webpage metadata to one or more of the system backend components and a data storage device.

“27. The dynamic user interface framework of claim 19, wherein each of the configuration engine, dynamic forms engine and aggregator engine are configured to operate in a polyglot micro-services architecture to generate, test, sequence and simultaneously deploy multiple webpages for multiple workflow journeys specifically configured for multiple types of user devices using multiple types of web browsers.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Ebeling, Christopher C.; GOTTIPATI, Kalyan C.; Mayerson, Jeffrey M.; Mukhopadhyay, Sudip; Muthu, Balamurugan; Nayak, Deepak; Pearson, Ryan; Roberts, Christine; Shah, Rajesh K.; Sufi, Arif. Dynamic User Interface (Ui) Framework. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240146712, filed October 9, 2023 and posted May 2, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240146712)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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