Discovering user communities on the Internet using unsupervised machine learning techniques

Interest in the analysis of user behaviour on the Internet has been increasing rapidly, especially since the advent of electronic commerce. In this context, we argue here for the usefulness of constructing communities of users with common behaviour, making use of machine learning techniques. In particular, we assume that the users of any service on the Internet constitute a large community and we aim to construct smaller communities of users with common characteristics. The paper presents the results of three case studies for three different types of Internet service: a digital library, an information broker and a Web site. Particular attention is paid on the different types of information access involved in the three case studies: query-based information retrieval, profile-based information filtering and Web-site navigation. Each type of access imposes different constraints on the representation of the learning task. Two different unsupervised learning methods are evaluated: conceptual clustering and cluster mining. One of our main concerns is the construction of meaningful communities that can be used for improving information access on the Internet. Analysis of the results in the three case studies brings to surface some of the important properties of the task, suggesting the feasibility of a common methodology for the three different types of information access on the Internet.     

The TV-WEB project - combining internet and television – lessons learnt from the user experience studies

We present the results of the user experience studies conducted as part of the European SEE TV-WEB project activities. The SEE TV-WEB project aims to use the free digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting frequency spectrum capacities for transmitting selected Internet content and ensuring at least some Internet experience via TV devices to the certain less advantaged segments of the population, or those in rural areas without broadband access. Five different test study cases are presented, four in Slovenia and one in Austria, each with different specific target user groups and their own dynamics. According to the project disposition goals the focus was on the elderly. Methods, such as think-aloud protocol in combination with a guided interview and observation of verbal as well as of non-verbal responses, were used. To ensure the repeatability of tests and to help guide the process, a special questionnaire was developed. The research questions focused on: the navigation and interaction concept, the content, the readability, and the overall acceptance and the perception of value of the TV-WEB service. More than 74 users participated in the user experience studies, 27 of them 65 years old or older. The results indicate that the presented navigation and interaction concept is indeed intuitive and simple enough to be used by most users with no or little effort. This is especially proven by the results from studies at both elderly citizens homes, where the majority of participants were 65 years old or older.     

Elderly user experience to improve a Kinect-based game playability

When it comes to using computers, older people experience many barriers, which are a considerable hurdle to overcome in order to enable them to accept technological aids. Thus, computer interface design and development must support elderly end users by avoiding many usability issues which lead to negative impacts on them. This paper describes the combination of a computer game design for the elderly and its implementation with user experience considerations embedded in the process. In this way, a positive gaming experience is provided to the end user. This game uses the Kinect device, enabling users to interact intuitively with the computer without any intermediary controller, and its main purpose is to promote at the same time cognitive and physical activities for healthy living. Feedback was taken from physiotherapists’ written observations and user experience questionnaires, which allowed the game to be adapted to their needs, obtaining 86.25% satisfaction. The effectiveness of this study opens the door to new developments in ICT that not only improve quality of life but also reduce the existing digital divide for the elderly.     

Understanding the new digital divide—A typology of Internet users in Europe

The purpose of this study is to better understand the digital divide by identifying the variety of ways in which people in Europe use the Internet. First, by using cluster analysis on survey data (N=12,666/age: 16–74 years) from Eurostat on Internet usage in Norway, Sweden, Austria, the UK, and Spain, we identified five user types: Non-Users (42%), Sporadic Users (18%), Instrumental Users (18%), Entertainment Users (10%), and Advanced Users (12%). These user types differ in their distributions over country, age, access, household members, and gender. An alarming finding is that 60% of the population was found to be either Non-Users or Sporadic Users, which reflects a large digital divide in Europe. Second, we conducted a logistic regression to identify the predictors for different user types. We found on a cross-national level that age and Internet access are the most salient predictors, whereas gender and household seems to be less relevant. However, the amount of variance explained differs between countries. We also suggested a future increase in the digital divide between the identified user types—a user type divide. The user typology and the identified predictors might help researchers, practitioners, and decision makers to better understand Internet users and the multi-complex variations among individuals and countries. This knowledge will also serve as a means to understand the digital divide by providing a more nuanced perspective on Europeans' unequal usage of the Internet and participation in an increasingly digital society.     

Navigation in 3D virtual environments: Effects of user experience and location-pointing navigation aids

In this paper, we describe the results of an experimental study whose objective was twofold: (1) comparing three navigation aids that help users perform wayfinding tasks in desktop virtual environments (VEs) by pointing out the location of objects or places; (2) evaluating the effects of user experience with 3D desktop VEs on their effectiveness with the considered navigation aids. In particular, we compared navigation performance (in terms of total time to complete an informed search task) of 48 users divided into two groups: subjects in one group had experience in navigating 3D VEs while subjects in the other group did not. The experiment comprised four conditions that differed for the navigation aid that was employed. The first and the second condition, respectively, exploited 3D and 2D arrows to point towards objects that users had to reach; in the third condition, a radar metaphor was employed to show the location of objects in the VE; the fourth condition was a control condition with no location-pointing navigation aid available. The search task was performed both in a VE representing an outdoor geographic area and in an abstract VE that did not resemble any familiar environment. For each VE, users were also asked to order the four conditions according to their preference. Results show that the navigation aid based on 3D arrows outperformed (both in terms of user performance and user preference) the others, except in the case when it was used by experienced users in the geographic VE. In that case, it was as effective as the others. Finally, in the geographic VE, experienced users took significantly less time than inexperienced users to perform the informed search, while in the abstract VE the difference was significant only in the control and the radar conditions. From a more general perspective, our study highlights the need to take into specific consideration user experience in navigating VEs when designing navigation aids and evaluating their effectiveness.     

Age differences in information finding tasks: Performance and visual exploration strategy with different web page layouts

Recent research suggests that older Internet users seem to find it more difficult to locate navigation links than to find information content in web pages. One possibility is that older Internet users’ visual exploration of web pages is more linear in nature, even when this type of processing is not appropriate for the task. In the current study, the eye movements of young and older Internet users were recorded using an ecological version of the web pages or a discursive version designed to induce a linear exploration. The older adults found more targets when performing content-oriented compared to navigation-oriented searches, thus replicating previous results. Moreover, they performed less well than young people only when required to locate navigation links and tended to outperform the younger participants in content-oriented searches. Although the type of search task and type of web page resulted in different visual strategies, little or no support was found for the hypothesis that older participants explore web pages in a more linear way in cases where this strategy was not appropriate. The main conclusion is that differences in visual exploration do not seem to mediate the specific difficulty older adults experience in navigation-oriented searches in web pages.     

Creating Web3D educational stories from crowdsourced annotations

3D representation and storytelling are two powerful means for educating students while engaging them. This paper describes a novel software architecture that couples them for creating engaging linear narrations that can be shared on the web. The architecture takes advantage of a previous work focused on the semantic annotation of 3D worlds that allows the users to go beyond the simple navigation of 3D objects, permitting to retrieve them with different search tools. The novelty of our architecture is that authors don’t have to build stories from scratch, but can take advantage of the crowdsourced effort of all the users accessing the platform, which can contribute providing assets or annotating objects. At our best knowledge no existing workflow includes the collaborative annotation of 3D worlds and the possibility to create stories on the top of it. Another feature of our design is the possibility for users to switch from and to any of the available activities during the same session. This integration offers the possibility to define a complex user experience, even starting from a simple linear narration. The visual interfaces of the system will be described in relation to a case study focused on culture heritage.     

基于老年用户心智模型的智慧厨房适老性饮食管理应用研究

通过分析老年人心智模型和层次分析法(AHP),构建老年用户心智模型,设计出 基于老年用户心智模型的饮食健康管理应用。通过AHP 评估各组成要素,得出影响老年人心智 模型构建因子的排序权重：认知构造、行为指引和情绪显现,以此为理论依据,为老年用户设 计了一款基于老年用户心智模型的智慧厨房适老性饮食管理应用。使饮食管理流程符合老年人 既有认知、形成有效的医养模式。最后,通过用户测试和专家测试验证种子原型,反复修改后 完成最终原型设计。融合老年用户心智模型的适老性饮食管理应用研究,不仅可以为老年人提 供良好的用户体验,还为设计老年用户心智模型的饮食健康管理应用提供理论依据和客观度量 数据。帮助老年人更好地适应智慧厨房。     

Adaptive training interfaces for less-experienced,elderly users of electronic devices

A great number of complex electronic devices are now part of our everyday lives. While many of us learn to handle these products by trial and error; others, especially older users with little experience in using electronic devices, need support. In order to allow the user maximum flexibility in terms of learning time and location, a training programme is presented which is implemented as part of the software embedded in the product itself. Particular focus is placed on the effect of adaptive training on learning. In this study, the training versions differed in their ability to adjust their complexity to the user's experience (adaptive user interface complexity) and their capability to support the learner by prompting them during the learning process (adaptive training advice). The results show that the adjustment of complexity had a positive effect on users’ experience: elderly users who trained with an adaptive interface were more successful in learning to use a mobile phone. Adaptive training advice, however, was found to have no significant effects on learners’ success and reduced their self-efficacy. This work offers guidelines on how to design integrated training applications for electronic devices that successfully help elderly users with little prior experience.     

The effect of tracking technique on the quality of user experience for augmented reality mobile navigation

Augmented reality (AR) technology is changing the way we interact with the world by making the journey seamless and interactive. This is done by layering digital enhancements over an existing reality or real life scenario. However, employing AR technologies in wayfinding and navigation does not automatically bring positive experiences. We argue that tracking techniques are important in mobile AR navigation and fundamentally affect the quality of user experience. In this paper, we propose two different tourist AR applications based on different tracking techniques. In addition to the analysis of the applications, we conducted a user evaluation to study the effect of different AR tracking techniques on the performance of users and the quality of user experience.     

Designing universal access: web-applications for the elderly and disabled

Throughout a person’s life they are likely to experience some degree of impairment. What must be ensured is that these individuals can benefit from the opportunities afforded by technology in the same way as those who are able bodied. With the Internet becoming an increasingly popular medium for organizations to deliver information and services to the public many of these technological benefits are provided through web applications. However, due to possible visual, physical or cognitive impairments, older users and those with disabilities are more likely to experience difficulties. This paper addresses issues relating to usability of web applications for elderly and disabled users and investigates ways in which it can be improved, and whether doing so will affect usability for younger and more able users. Results from experiments undertaken indicated that it was possible to develop a web application for elderly and disabled users without degrading usability for other users.     

Students’ navigation patterns in the interaction with a mechanics hypermedia program

This study investigates the interaction of a group of freshmen enrolled in a Pre Service Physics Teacher Training Course with a mechanics hypermedia program. Data were obtained to discuss hypertextual navigation guided by the following questions: (i) How can the students’ navigation in this hypermedia program be characterized? (ii) How does this relate to their prior knowledge in mechanics? The sequence analysis of the events collected from the log files was used to characterize students’ navigation and a mechanics test assessed students’ prior knowledge. The inspection of students’ navigation graphs made it possible to associate the structure of navigation to prior knowledge in mechanics. Three patterns of navigation are proposed associated to different levels of students’ prior knowledge and to different roles performed by the program. In the organized navigation, the student who best performed in the pre test seemed to be reviewing content he already knew, using the system as a database. In the conceptual navigation the students who presented difficulties in the pre test spent different times in the pages as they were addressing conceptual difficulties, using the system as a support for learning. The students who scored the lowest in the test performed a disoriented navigation, spending much less than the adequate time to interact meaningfully with the content. The role that previous knowledge in mechanics plays in these patterns of navigation was related to the function that Ausubel’s subsumers perform in learning. The results indicate that hypertextual navigation can provide information about students’ conditions to engage in meaningful learning, which could be used to help the teacher personalize instruction.     

Modeling users on the World Wide Web based on cognitive factors,navigation behavior and clustering techniques

This paper focuses on modeling users’ cognitive styles based on a set of Web usage mining techniques on user navigation patterns and clickstream data. Main aim is to investigate whether specific clustering techniques can group users of particular cognitive style using measures obtained from psychometric tests and content navigation behavior. Three navigation metrics are proposed and utilized to find identifiable groups of users that have similar navigation patterns in relation to their cognitive style. The proposed work has been evaluated with two user studies which entail a psychometric-based survey for extracting the users’ cognitive styles, combined with a real usage scenario of users navigating in a controlled Web 2.0 environment. A total of 106 participants of age between 17 and 25 participated in the study providing interesting insights with respect to cognitive styles and navigation behavior of users. Studies like the reported one can be useful for modeling users and assist adaptive Web 2.0 environments to organize and present information and functionalities in an adaptive format to diverse user groups.     

一种基于Web服务的RIA系统集成的应用

将Flex与Web服务相结合构建RIA（Rich Internet Application,富互联网应用）系统集成,利用Web服务将应用系统中业务流程逻辑封装为标准服务,通过服务的发布与发现机制,实现企业数据资源共享;利用加密算法对传输报文数字签名和加密;利用Flex为用户提供统一的富客户端用户界面,实现高度互动性和响应性的客户端,丰富用户体验;利用模块Modules方式、导航方式、动态加载组件方式,组件重用方式等重构Flex表示层,提高系统性能,并与J2EE相整合,验证Flex与Web服务相结合构建RIA系统集成的可行性,合理性。     

基于蚁群行为的动态挖掘用户导航模式兴趣模型

随着电子商务的快速发展,一个越来越重要的问题是如何挖掘并预测用户的导航模式。挖掘用户的导航模式是Web使用挖掘的一项重要任务,也是产生导航推荐的基本方法。由于用户的兴趣是不断变化的,因此很难准确跟踪用户的导航模式。在提出了一种蚁群模型来解决该问题。把Web用户看成是人工的蚂蚁,然后应用蚂蚁理论来指导用户在网站上的选择。首先,基于Web日志数据建立一个用户导航模型;其次,设计了一个算法,动态挖掘群体用户偏好的导航模式;最后,对真实数据集的实验结果表明该方法是有效的。     

Discovering stages in web navigation for problem-oriented navigation support

Users of web sites often do not know exactly which information they are looking for nor what the site has to offer. The purpose of their interaction is not only to fulfill but also to articulate their information needs. In these cases users need to pass through a series of pages before they can use the information that will eventually answer their questions. Current systems that support navigation predict which pages are interesting for the users on the basis of commonalities in the contents or the usage of the pages. They do not take into account the order in which the pages must be visited. In this paper we propose a method to automatically divide the pages of a web site on the basis of user logs into sets of pages that correspond to navigation stages. The method searches for an optimal number of stages and assigns each page to a stage. The stages can be used in combination with the pages’ topics to give better recommendations or to structure or adapt the site. The resulting navigation structures guide the users step by step through the site providing pages that do not only match the topic of the user’s search, but also the current stage of the navigation process.     

Factors affecting the smartphone users to use the mobile portal services: focusing on Korean mobile portals

This study aims to clarify whether and how the portal sites in wired Internet environments can enhance their positions as market leaders in the mobile environment.The result may explain that the user’s trust in the mobile services of portal sites (the mobile portal services) is related to the site’s quality and the site’s brand equity significantly and is a mediator to increase the user’s intention to use mobile portal services. This study also explains that the user’s experience with a smartphone can encourage portal users to expect that the mobile portal services are useful and that the experience can link brand equity in certain business environments to trust in the brand in other business environments. Site quality including the design quality of portal sites can affect the user’s trust in the mobile services of the portal sites directly and can affect the user’s intention to use the mobile portal services under certain conditions. Practically, this study suggests that portal sites should focus on designing and developing more usable sites with high-quality UI components—convenient menu navigation, a proper UI design, and usable content rather depend on their current position as the leading companies in the wired Internet environment.     

How different information types affect viewer’s attention on internet advertising

The effect of internet advertising has been a controversial issue, especially on the topic of how to effectively draw more attention from internet users. According to traditional attention theory, we know people pay lesser attention on other objects if the main browsing contents occupy more of the viewer’s mental resources. Therefore, we know different information types of webpage should have different influences on users’ attention. On the other hand, an effect called ‘banner blindness’ makes viewers naturally overlook the advertising based on their previous experience. It is therefore becoming more and more difficult to increase viewer’s attention on advertisement simply by adding salient features on the advertisements. In light of this new challenge in Internet advertising, verifying the different influences of the information types on advertising attention is the main goal of this study.Great amounts of previous studies relevant to internet advertising focused on the advertisement itself, like the form, color, size and location. However, this study put focus on how the information types and the webpage structure influence the viewer’s attention on banner advertising. This research tested the effect on user attention of four common information types on Internet webpages: (1) text-based webpage; (2) text-picture mixed webpage; (3) picture-based webpage; and (4) video-based webpage. This study hopes to provide valuable information for matching advertising with viewing tasks that will stimulate the most user attention.     

基于Scrapy的房屋租赁信息搜索系统设计与实现

在如今互联网技术蓬勃房展及高房价的背景下，越来越多的人通过互联网寻找合适的租赁房源。目前互联网上房屋租赁网站众多，租房者在每家网站上均需要单独注册登录，且查询搜索过程繁琐，用户体验不佳。该文基于scrapy开源爬虫框架设计并实现了一个房屋租赁信息搜索系统，该系统从多个房屋租赁网站采集房源信息，进行数据格式转换后，向用户提供统一且多样化的房源搜索及展示功能。     

Impact of the density of the elements belonging to the quick access area of a smartphone app on the visual search efficiency and user experience of elderly people

In the digital age, the dependence of the elderly on smartphones is growing; and the frequency of use and time spent on various apps continue to grow. The display elements belonging to the quick access area on the homepage of an app act as shortcuts for navigation, directly affecting the search efficiency and user experience of the elderly when they use the app. In this study, we aim to investigate the impact of the density of the elements (icons and their text labels) located on the quick access area of smartphone apps on the visual search efficiency and user experience of elderly people. First, three typical density designs were extracted by collating and analyzing the density rules for the elements belonging to the quick access areas on the homepages of existing elderly-oriented versions of mainstream apps. Then, the densities of three elements in the quick access area on the homepage of a takeout app were used for a case study involving 96 elderly subjects, who were invited to participate in the task search test and user interviews. The results showed that the density of the elements in the app’s quick access area had no significant effect on the visual search efficiency of the subjects but had a certain impact on the user experience. Additionally, the older elderly subjects preferred designs with lower density, while the younger elderly ones, who had more online shopping experience, preferred designs with higher density. The subjects were more concerned about the ease of use and the overall user experience of the quick access area than its visual aesthetics. The research results not only provide a theoretical reference and design basis for designing icons and text labels belonging to the quick access area of apps, considering the density of these elements in the context of elderly-oriented apps, but also offers inspiration for improving the user experience of elderly people that use apps.