Modifying an electronic form using metrics obtained from measuring user effort

• US 10,255,258 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2016
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avoka Technologies Pty Ltd (Temenos AG)
• Original Assignee: Avoka Technologies Pty Ltd (Temenos AG)
• Inventors: Corcoran, Derek John
• Primary Examiner(s): Kells, Asher D
• Application Number:
  US15/136,070
• Publication Number:
  US 20160314110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,082 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A method, processing system and computer readable medium are disclosed for modifying a form. In one particular aspect, the method includes the a processing system performing the following steps: transferring form data indicative of at least part of a form to a plurality of user devices; receiving, from the plurality of user devices, user interaction data indicative of user interaction with at least part of the form; analyzing the user interaction data to determine a user effort metric in relation to user interaction with at least part of the form; and outputting, based on the user effort metric, one or more recommended modifications to the form.

Claims

1. A method performed by a processing system including:

receiving form stage definition data a sequence of stages that are presentable within the form;

receiving form step definition data indicative of a series of steps to be executed by a user completing the form for each stage of the form;

storing the form stage definition data and the form step definition data in a data store;

receiving and storing in the data store one or more attribute values defined for one or more form fields of the form, each form field representing one of the steps and associated with one of the stages of the form, wherein the one or more attribute values include at least one of;

a field type value;

a field length value indicative length of the field;

a mandatory value indicative of whether the field needs to be completed in order to submit the form;

a prefill occurrence value indicative of the likelihood that field is prefillable; and

an information difficulty value indicative of the difficulty of providing information requested for field;

transferring form data indicative of at least part of a form to a plurality of user devices;

receiving, from the plurality of user devices, user interaction data indicative of user interaction with at least part of the form, wherein the user interaction data is stored in a data store;

analyzing the user interaction data to determine a user effort metric in relation to user interaction with at least part of the form, where the user effort metric is determined using at least some of the one or more attributes; and

outputting, based on the user effort metric, one or more recommended modifications to the form.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method includes:

associating metadata stored in the data store with the respective form stages and steps of the form.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the stages and steps of the form are be defined in XML, wherein the XML includes at least one XML tag associating at least some of the meta-data stored in the data store with at least some of the form stages and the form steps.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method includes:

calculating for at least some of the steps of the form a respective step effort value, wherein each calculated step effort value is calculated based upon at least some of the one or more attribute values that are stored in the data store;

calculating for at least some of the stages of the form a stage effort value, wherein each stage effort value of each respective stage is calculated based upon the respective step effort value of each fields of the respective stage and at least some of the user interaction data; and

calculating the user effort metric based upon the respective stage effort values of each stage of the form.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step effort metric is calculated according to:

Step Effort Metric =FT·

FLF·

PFO·

ID.

where;

FT is the field type effort value;

FLF is the field length value;

PFO is prefill occurrence value; and

ID is the information difficulty value.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the calculating of each stage effort step is based upon a weighted sum of the one or more step effort values, wherein at least some of the step effort values are weighted according a step weight value stored in the data store.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the calculating of each stage effort step is based upon a number of occurrences which each step of the respective stage has been presented to a form completing user.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein each stage effort metric is calculated according to:

9. The method according to claim 4, wherein the calculating of the user effort metric is based upon a weighted sum of the one or more stage effort values, wherein at least some of the stage effort values are weighted according a stage weight value stored in the data store.

10. The method according to claim 4, wherein the calculating of the user effort metric is based upon a number of occurrences which each stage of the respective stage has been presented to a form completing user.

11. The method according to claim 4, wherein the user effort metric is calculated according to:

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method includes applying one or more rules defining one or more acceptable modifications to automatically determine the one or more recommended modifications to the form.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method includes the processing system automatically implementing the one or more modifications to the form.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method includes:

implementing the one or more modifications to the form thereby generating the modified form

determining a user effort metric for the modified form;

comparing the user effort metric for the form and the user effort metric for the modified form, and

in the event that the user effort metric of the modified form has not improved compared to the form, reverting the one or more modifications to the form.

15. A processing system including a processor and memory, wherein the processor is configured to:

receive form stage definition data defining a sequence of stages that are presentable within the form;

receive form step defining data indicative of a series of steps to be executed by a user completing the form for each stage of the form;

store the form stage definition data and the form step definition data in a data store;

receive and store in the data store one or more attribute values defined for one or more form field of the form, each form field representing one of the steps and associated one of the stages of the form, wherein the one or more attribute values include at least one of;

a field type value;

a field length value indicative of a textual length of the field;

a mandatory value indicative of whether the field needs to be completed in order to submit the form;

a prefill occurrence value indicative of the likelihood that field is prefillable; and

an information difficulty value indicative of the difficulty of providing information requested for the field;

transfer form data indicative of at least part of a form to a plurality of user devices;

receive, from the plurality of user devices, user interaction data indicative of user interaction with at least part of the form, wherein the user interaction data is stored in a data store;

analyze the user interaction data to determine a user effort metric in relation to user interaction with at least part of the form, wherein the user effort metric is determined using at least some one or more attributes; and

output, based on the user effort metric, one or more recommended modifications to the form.

16. The processing system according to claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to:

calculate for at least some of the steps of the form a respective step effort value, wherein each calculated step effort value is calculated based upon at least some of the one or more attribute values that are stored in the data store;

calculate for at least some of the stages of the form a stage effort value, wherein each stage effort value of each respective stage is calculated based upon the respective step effort value of each fields of the respective stage and at least some of the user interaction data; and

calculate the user effort metric based upon the respective stage effort values of each stage of the form.

17. The processing system according to claim 16, wherein the step effort metric is calculated according to:

Step Effort Metrtc =FT·

FLF·

PFO·

ID

where;

FT is the field type effort value;

FLF is the field length value;

PFO is prefifi occurrence value; and

ID is the information difficulty value.

18. The processing system according to claim 16, wherein each stage effort metric is calculated according to:

19. The processing system according to claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to calculate the user effort metric according to:

20. A non-transient computer readable medium including program instructions for configuring a processing system to:

receive form stage definition data defining a sequence of stages that are presentable with the form;

receive form step definition data indicative of a series of steps to be executed by a user completing the form for each stage of the form;

store the form stage definition data and the form step definition data store;

receive and store in the data store customisation data including one or more attribute values defined for one or more form fields of the form, each form field representing one of the steps and associated with one of the stages of the form, wherein the one or more attribute values include at least one of;

a field type value;

a field length value indicative of a textual length of the field;

a mandatory value indicative of whether the field needs to be complete in order to submit the form;

a prefill occurrence value indicative of the likelihood that prefillable; and

an information difficulty value indicative of the difficulty of providing information requested for the field;

transfer form data indicative of at least part of a form to a plurality of user devices;

receive, from the plurality of user devices, user interaction data indicative of user interaction with at least part of the form;

analyze the user interaction data to determine a user effort metric in relation to user interaction with at least part of the form, wherein the user interaction data is stored in a data store, wherein the user effort metric is determined using at least some of the one or more attributes; and

output, based on the user effort metric, one or more recommended modifications to the form.

21. The non-transient computer readable medium according to claim 20, wherein the program instructions configure the processing system to:

calculate for at least some of the steps of the form a respective step effort value, wherein each calculated step effort value is calculated based upon at least some of the one or more attribute values that are stored in the data store;

calculate for at least some of the stages of the form a stage effort value, wherein each stage effort value of each respective stage is calculated based upon the respective step effort value of each fields of the respective stage and at least some of the user interaction data; and

calculate the user effort metric based upon the respective stage effort values of each stage of the form.

22. The non-transient computer readable medium according to claim 21, wherein the step effort metric is calculated according to:

Step Effort Metric =FT·

FLF·

PFO·

ID

where;

FT is the field type effort value;

FLF is the field length value;

PFO is prefill occurrence value; and

ID is the information difficulty value.

23. The non-transient computer readable medium according to claim 21, wherein each stage effort metric is calculated according to:

24. The non-transient computer readable medium according to claim 21, wherein the user effort metric is calculated according to: