Web Usability Made Easier

Adaptation

personalization vs. customization

Aleksandra Stoeva

Current State of World Wide Web

More than 1,000,000,000 websites Users: The World What do people want online?

– “They're not aimless "surfers" looking for a fix or a novelty. Instead, the average Net user seems to be a goal-oriented person interested in finding information and communicating with others.” (Sean Carton. (2000) What Do People Want Online. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=824471)

Usability

What is usability applied to the WWW?– the extent to which a site can be used by a specified group of users

to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use

How can adaptation help?– Content (consider: age, occupation, other interests)– Presentation of information (language, level of experience)

Where can adaptation be applied?– Browser– Web Application

Forms of Inference

Requires activity history, but whose?– Web log mining

one user

– Clustering Generalize (from group to user)

– Data usage– Profile

Adaptive vs. Adaptable

Personalization– Full Control: system– Faster from user perspective– Relatively more data– e.g. EBay

Book suggestion

You want X?

That’s what I needed!

Customization– Full Control: user– Slower from user perspective– Relatively less data– e.g. !My Yahoo

Color Layout

Adaptive vs. AdaptableContinued

Problems– Reduced awareness– Reduced level of trust– Sociological problem

W – workload

U – unpredictability

C - competency

Solutions– Provide feedback– Support undo and redo– Adaptable automation– Friendly interface

Browser vs. Web Application

Browser - individual– Customization

Security level Content Accessibility

– Personalization The last thing I saved in… Cookies

– Advantage or Disadvantage?

Browser vs. Web ApplicationContinued

Web Application– Individual

Personalization requires registration– Can do: Infer Shortcuts, Remember States– Cannot do: Infer appeal, Aid during/before registration

Customization– Specify own rules– Wizards

– By Groups

Browser - Interface to IS

Support for dynamic changes in context– Computing

Memory availability (e.g. respond properly to CPU usage)– Communication

Respond to network’s characteristics (e.g. bandwidth availability)

– Input/Out Support different types of devices and interaction modes

(e.g. GUIs adapting to screen size) – User

Interface tailored based on user history– Location

Define the security domain

Implications

Personalization techniques, agents Additions to the browser

– Context monitor– Context manager

Disadvantages– CPU time used by the manger– Space required for extra data (user adaptation)

Customization saves CPU time, language and other preferences better asked than inferred

Adaptation System Out

Advantages– Resources

Not yours– Scope

Group information

Disadvantages– Scope

Only this web application

Summary

Intermediaries – more is better– In browser

Consider constrains – CPU, memory

– In web application Properly combined use of personalization

and customization– Consider

Constrains Human factors