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

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. Adaptable Continued 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 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 – 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