Method and device for finding, collecting and acting upon units of information

An information interface and method for finding, collecting and acting upon information which has been arranged in hierarchical form. In its best mode of implementation, the interface has a display area with four components: a content area for showing units of information at a particular level in a hierarchy, a context area for showing the information node which is parent to the displayed level of units, an identity area for showing the sequence of such parents in the user's navigation history through the information relative to the currently displayed level, and a desire area for the user to collect and act upon desired units of information. The method of the invention provides two functions: one for clarification, for navigating the hierarchy of information, moving forward and backward through the nodes and branches; and a second for memorization, for collecting desired units of information and then acting upon them. The invention further provides for partition of a displayed level into sections no larger than the number of sub-areas in the content area, thereby accommodating levels larger than the number of content sub-areas provided for the display device.