Transcript Web Usability Made Easier

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?
–

How can adaptation help?
–
–

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
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
That’s what I
needed!
You
want X?

Personalization
–
–
–
–
Full Control: system
Faster from user perspective
Relatively more data
e.g. EBay

Book suggestion

Customization
–
–
–
–
Full Control: user
Slower from user perspective
Relatively less data
e.g. !My Yahoo


Color
Layout
Adaptive vs. Adaptable
Continued
W – workload
U – unpredictability
C - competency

Problems
–
–
–
Reduced awareness
Reduced level of trust
Sociological problem

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 Application
Continued

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
–
–

Disadvantages
–
–

Context monitor
Context manager
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